2/3
Think about a part of yourself that you truly don’t understand. Ask a question and explore some possible answers. The goal should not be to find one completely correct answer, but to ask even more questions about it. This can be 300 words of questions with no answers.
Its hard to put into words a single part of my being that I don’t understand, because I truly feel like I never really have myself figured out. It’s not to say that I am constantly confused, but that I am constantly evolving and discovering more about myself with each step I take. Something that I have been contemplating a lot recently is my career ambitions, being that changing universities for the second time has really make me rethink what it is that drives me to ‘make’. I guess when you boil it down, that’s all I’ve really ever wanted to do, but the concept is so vague that I never really feel like the answer is complete. Do I want to make things for myself? To tell my own story? Or do I want to make things that others can relate to, to bring people together? How can I do this most effectively? Through film? Paintings? Clothes? Pictures? Do I have to stick to one of these mediums? Can I even expect people to care what I have to say through my work? Or what if they don’t even understand it? I do know one thing for sure: I feel much less constrained with my current schooling, being an integrated design major gives me the option to discover new modes of expression and find out how they effect the viewer. To get even more introspective, I wonder why I have such a fascination with the physical and material world? There is a lot more out there than simply the visual. Why do I not find myself more attracted to writing or music? Whenever I am reading something or listening to music, I’m thinking of mini movies and visuals to go along with them in my head. I sometimes even get distracted by them. Is the visual world simply a distraction? Is that why I am constantly seeking it? What am I yearning to be distracted from?
2/4
What makes something art? Have you ever seen something on the street and thought it was public art, only to realize it wasn’t?
Personally, I feel that for something to be considered art all it has to do is make you feel something. It doesn’t even have to be a good feeling. Some music and films are so sad that they can make you cry. This is sometimes the most powerful art, because the emotions that go into making them are some of the strongest and hardest to replicate. Art can be extremely personal. It can be something that only the creator can truly understand, but if the viewer can experience any sort of feeling from it, then that is an effective piece. Art can be extremely simple. Just a few lines on a page can express just enough to make someone see something and feel something. Art can be open-ended. Sometimes the point may be for each viewer to see something different, and to relate to to themselves. This can be very powerful because it brings all sort of people together to relate to the same piece in their own way. Art can be blatant, and sometimes harsh. Art can be funny. Art can be stupid.
Back in fall, I was walking around the east village and started to notice these fliers posted nearly on every corner. At first glance they looked like the classic ‘lost dog’ poster with the pull-off tabs for contact information, and a sad looking black and white photo of the dog. When I finally stopped to read it, I realized it was actually a picture of a 70-ish year-old man with white hair, and where it would normally say lost dog it instead said ‘Looking for a girlfriend’. Underneath, there was a description of what this man was looking for. It said something along the lines of ‘I need a hot model girlfriend on my arm. No oldies.” For some reason I could not fathom that someone would actually resort to this sort of outreach for a date, so I assumed that it must be some kind of art statement about how dating apps are changing the way the young generation interacts, but later I noticed articles online about the man, and he had come forward saying he had successfully gotten 68 replies and 68 dates from this effort. I’m still confused by this.
2/5
Choose a subject you would like to write “about.” Then attempt to write a piece that absolutely avoids any relationship to that subject. After you’re finished, grade yourself.
I would like to write about my experience with art school, its effectiveness, it’s faults etc.
Have you ever had a friend who you grew apart from, yet you still feel close? My childhood best friend, Amanda, is that for me. We grew up a few houses down from each other, spending our summers riding our bikes around the neighborhood, messing with our little sisters, and spending way too much time in the pool. Our families couldn’t be more different though. Her parents got divorced when she was in middle school, and she and her two sisters were heavily effected. Amanda became depressed, and the teenage turmoil of high school was no help for that. Rumors started to float around school, boy drama and girls being catty for no particular reason. Amanda started to distance herself from me at school, floating between friend groups and never really feeling accepted by them, missing a very crucial support system at this time in her life. Every Christmas Eve our families would get to together to have dessert and cocktails for the adults, and Amanda and I would catch up on everything as though we were still best friends. She told me about her new friends and how they were spreading new rumors about her. She told me about her new crush and I told her about mine. When went to college, Amanda just barely made it through her first semester at a local Massachusetts college, and then decided to take some time off, moving back home. She ended up getting to what anyone would call a toxic relationship, and they moved in together right away. Her whole family begged for help to get her to leave him, but of course its never that simple. Last summer, when I was going though a bad break-up and she was doubting her own relationship, we took a walk together around our block. It was probably 10 PM when she texted me, but I put on my old sweatshirt and met her in the driveway. She told me how she felt conflicted with her decisions and trapped in her current situation. I told her how I felt betrayed by my ex and relieved to be free at the same time. It almost seemed like we were going through the same thing in different stages. This past winter break, she finally left her boyfriend. She texted me right away saying ‘I did it, I moved out an hour ago’ and I told her I was proud of her. Although we still only share occasional texts updating each other on our lives, its just the kind of the support that happens from old friends and I’ve never feel like the distance is actually separating us. We’ve been connected since we were kids and that kind of love transcends through the challenges that life has thrown between us.
Although one or two points of this piece could distantly be connected to my education, it doesn’t have to do with art school specifically. (A?)
2/6
Can you teach art? Can you teach someone to be creative? How?
I actually have had experience with teaching art, and although at first I felt like it was too technical and I didn’t have to ability, that changed with my own artistic growth. My sophomore year of high school, I was a teachers assistant for a pottery wheel class for 6-9 year-olds at my local recreation center. This proved to be more difficult than expected, probably because of the age of the students and their tendency to want to throw the clay at each other. I was discouraged by having to unclog the slop sink after every class, and breaking through to these kids was not an easy task when the skill to be taught involved so much patience and technique. Two years ago, when I was living in my dorm at Emerson College, one of my now best friends, Noelle, asked my how I am able to draw the way I do. This question stumped me at first, because I never really thought of how I do it, I just do. Noelle herself was a writing major at the time, and writing was her own artistic medium. I told her that if she can write then she can draw, its all the same. Just putting thoughts onto a page, and the rest is technique which can be developed. I encouraged her to get some paints and canvas, and to keep a sketchbook to practice drawing in. She’s been practicing ever since and I’ve seen first hand how her confidence in her abilities have grown. She told me recently that one thing I told her that really changed the way she saw art was that its okay to make mistakes. Its okay to not like what you made, and its okay to erase, change, and start over. She since picked up filmmaking as a new form of expression and has felt an immense freedom to be able to be creative in whatever way she feels best suits her ideas. Noelle is already an incredibly creative person, it was just a matter of encouraging her to express her creativity in new ways. I believe that this would be no different from teaching anyone art, because everyone is inherently creative in their own way, whether they study it or not. Everyone has creative tendencies or hobbies, and they can learn the technical part through practice and encouragement.
2/7
If you owned a gallery, what kind of art would you display? Would your gallery have a theme?
I’ve often thought about if I had my own gallery, what would it be like? It tends to be the ultimate goal of a fine artist to be featured in big galleries, however I don’t necessarily like the way the system works. I have never felt that need myself as I don’t like the idea that art dealers and gallery owners would benefit so much from my art when they are not who the art is for. I’m not sure how to make this possible, but ideally I would want to create a gallery that could feature one artist at a time, booting them up and showcasing their pieces in whatever way they want, whether it be installation, interactive, film showings, or paintings. Maybe they want to spray paint all the walls and create a an immersive space specifically for the gallery, that would be cool with me. No one would have to benefit from it other than the artist themselves, and the only thing money would go to is the space itself. Last year when I was working at a local coffee shop in downtown Boston, my co workers and I put together an art show at the store. We put in so many hours working out the details, finding local artists and students to be in the show, posting flyers and inviting to public to the one-night event. We had art covering all the walls; paintings, photography, huge drawings. We even had a live poetry slam, and some people performed their music too. The night had such a memorable and special atmosphere, all these young artists coming together to share each others creations, making connections with each other, no judgment. We let anyone participate who wanted to and I think thats what made it so special. There was no feeling of elitism, no competition, just support. If I had my own gallery this would definitely be a something that I would want incorporate into the flow, making it more of an event space than specifically a gallery.
2/8
Describe your ideal place to live and to work. Describe the design of your ideal studio.
I’m unfortunately not sure than my ideal studio space exists, but if I could make it, it would be ever-changing, suiting whatever my needs are at the moment. Sometimes all I want to do is splash paint all over a canvas, make mess and not worry about running out of materials. Sometimes I want to build things, create an object that could benefit someone or innovate the way we do something. Sometimes I want to have a chill brainstorming session with my friends, hanging out on the couch with good food and music, talking about our ideas for possible projects to work on together. Sometimes I want a huge empty space to film whatever I want in. A crazy music video which would include costumes and sets also designed by me, so I guess my space would need to support that too. I would want my studio to be close to my living space, to make it easy to get an idea at 3 AM and immediately start working off of that momentum. I have imagined a scenario where I can walk up a spiral staircase in my one bedroom apartment and be in my own studio. In terms of location, I love cities for all of the connections, resources, and people. I am slightly conflicted here because I love New York so much, but I would also love to be closer to my family in Boston. I also would love to have an escape to nature as I sometimes feel like the city can be over-stimulating and claustrophobic. I would like to be able to go on hikes and exercise outside because I’ve always felt like my health has a direct effect on the quality of whatever I’m producing. Again, this may never be a possibility to have such an ideal space, but I can imagine right?
