Cayla Pair Mastery Journal

About me:

My name is Cayla Pair, and I am from Medford, Oregon. I did 5 years in the U.S. Navy before getting medically separated. Three months ago, I finished my bachelor's degree online in Visual Arts with Full Sail University. I am starting the New Media Journalism M.A. degree to further educate myself in the digital and social media world. I am a volunteer bartender for my local non-profit organization, the Moose Lodge. I do this to stay in touch with my community and get out of the house. I am currently a freelance 3D game artist specializing in props and environments.

Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/crimson_rose/albums/14301869

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cayla-pair-bb0b11199

Intention Statement:

Creating someone’s imagination and seeing it come to life is extremely satisfying for me. I have a great imagination myself, but making others' dreams come to life is a passion. My personal ambition is to redefine the word ‘beautiful’. I want to create an ‘ugly’ universe where all things ‘beautiful’ are nasty on the inside. I want to break the definitions of 'ugly' and 'beautiful' to create contrast and force people to look deeper into their surroundings and disregard their first impressions. There are too many expectations, and I want to teach people how to be kinder to themselves and others. Networking with the right people to help the word get out is one of my many goals.

I will be using new programs that I am not familiar with, ex. Blender. I want to be able to use free programs so I’m not locked into payments that I may not be able to afford. Learning these new styles and programs will help me hone my skills and be more versatile. The journalism master’s degree is slightly off my preferred mastery. I believe that being in this program will broaden my viewpoints and help me to have a better online presence. The internet and game art are constantly changing. By staying vigilant and hooked in my preferred field will help my mastery grow. I will bloom into the ugliest flower the world has seen, with a heart that cares and produces positive vibes like no other.

While I go through this master's program, I will be dedicating time every week to work on personal projects and also changing the style of my work to try something new. This will help others see how well-rounded I am, and I’ll be able to showcase my abilities. While I work on my portfolio and social media pages, I find myself wanting to learn even more so that my art and concepts reach people worldwide.

Weekly INSPIRATION

“Aries: masters of multitasking and accidentally starting five projects at once.” – Unknown

I love this quote because of how true it is. I'm not distracted! Squirrel! Food for squirrel, house for squirrel, and... a pool! But the dog might get jealous...

LinkedIn Screenshots

Career Goal: I will be a freelance 3D artist

Graduation Goal: I will add at least 4 portfolio pieces to my Artstation one month before graduation.

Deconstructed Steps:

1. I dedicate creative time 5 times a week

2. I sketch out and play with multiple art ideas

3. I pick something new with each project to showcase my multiple abilities

4. I model, UV, texture, and display my projects one at a time

5. Use my newfound knowledge of social media to post my work professionally

6. I submit my work and get an internship position to add to my portfolio

Using my connections on LinkedIn and by staying in school discord chats as an alumnus, I will be able to find opportunities both in freelance projects and internships.

Reflecting on New Media and Communications class, Oct 2025 (New Media Journalism [NMJ] master class)

Specific lesson overviews:

Discussion 1: Your content focus

This discussion and content leading up to it made me realize that I will not have time to work on individual art projects. Instead, I picked to focus on why AI is useful, how it’s not, and what digital artists and companies can do moving forward.

Assignment 2: Build your professional website

This assignment was particularly frustrating, but I learned a lot about website navigation and how to present a professional front.

Discussion 3: Your journalism-style pitch introduction

This discussion helped me to tone back the information I provided in a short and to the point statement. This will help me because I can memorize it to quickly introduce myself to others in a professional manner.

Discussion 4: Craft your business plan

This discussion required me to dissect my audience, goals, values, revenue plan, and distribution plans.

How assignment 2: build your professional website, stretched me personally and professionally:

Personally, creating my professional website was hard for me to do and I continued to try to improve it for the remainder of the course. I am still not happy with it, but I have learned a lot on WordPress and how to navigate it better. I am still learning the site, wrestling with the layout and getting pictures to place where I want them. Overall though I am personally getting better at it. Professionally this pushed me with getting it turned in on time and ultimately helped me to stick with it and to keep trying.

In conclusion I am proud to say that I completed this class after a second try. Turning in my assignments on time, making time to watch the videos, lecture recordings and completing the reading assignments was a goal that I can proudly say I finally completed. I feel confident that I put my best work in, and I learned how to manage my time better. I also changed the location I did my work a couple times which is a skill I’m glad to have played with.

Legal Aspects of Media 2602

My favorite assignment this course was during week three when we were required to write and read a script for a podcast about tips to protect yourself legally on social media. This assignment was my favorite because it made me translate complex laws into easy-to-understand tips. The pdfs that were provided as required reading helped simplify these tips, I did the assignment and read the info backwards. It also gave me more practice in writing in a conversational tone. My heart was beating a million miles a minute while I recorded myself talking. I had to do it multiple times because I talked way to fast, this helped me calm down and having the conversational tone helped.  I can honestly say that all topics covered this month are helpful as a communications professional. Congratulations to Full Sail University for creating a legal class that someone like me (anti news anything) could get through and understand. The ethical issues involved in posting on social media, including defamation and copyright helped me be more aware of the facts that I share and to be diligent is citing my sources and verifying information. I found that how the government deals with commercial speech to be interesting. The specific rules that the government can make require specific public interests to be met including health or minors.  If any legal issues were to show up in my writing, website or research, I can say with confidence that I would know how to contact an attorney, research any cases that may be similar to mine and I would know how to analyze those cases and make sense of the outcomes. The information I acquired will most likely keep me out of trouble in the first place. I am surprisingly thankful to have been forced to learn certain laws, amendments and court habits. 

Research and Investigation Skills Development 2603

This month, we went over how to find public records, how to request information that is available to the public, and how to conduct professional interviews. I appreciated that I was given tasks outside my comfort zone and was required to find information that a simple Google search would not fulfill. The interviews I conducted this month went from awkward to pretty good, so I feel a little more comfortable reaching out to people. I have learned that following up with someone is important and that showing up to their place of business should not come without a 24hr warning. Being mindful of others' schedules is also important because they are sharing their time with us.