Woodrow Jacques was born in Paris, Iles de France, in 1985 to an American mother and French father. His mother, Faith, who was a theater student in Paris at the time, met and madly fell in love with the famous French/Senegalese designer Pierre Jacques, the two got married within 2 months.
These drawings influenced our project because they were all taken from movies. Woodrow has a strong background in film and we wanted to portray that by picking pictures from different films. Combining fashion and film was something that we wanted to do to add more to the story of Woodrow.
Woodrow’s decision
It was a Sunday afternoon in New York City. After a long night of binge watching horror classics, Woodrow awoke to the sound of ending credits music from The Shining. He then proceeded to extend all four limbs as if he was a rubber band being stretched out. The distinct sound of bones cracking echoed through his bedroom. Woodrow pulled the covers off of his body and planted both feet on the hardwood floor. The floor was cold, almost unbearable to walk on. With each step the floor would creak, it took exactly 14 steps that proceeded with an eerie creak before he made it to the bathroom. The daily routine consisted of looking in the mirror, accepting the fact that he was balding, brushing his teeth, and then taking a shower. He grabbed his laptop, school books, two packets of poptarts, and put them all in his black SVA tote bag. He threw on his shearling coat and headed out the door. The air was brisk and the smell of pine from the gift shop next door lingered in the air. Woodrow grabbed his bike off the bike rack that was reminiscent of Bill’s bike from Stephen King’s IT. The ride from his apartment in Chelsea to SVA was a straight shot down 23rd street. If he made most of the street lights it would take him 8 minutes to get there, but queerly enough he made all of them. He had time to spare before his film class started. He pulled out a pack of Marlboro reds from his coat pocket and a purple bic lighter. Woodrow picked up the habit of smoking from living in Paris. He would try not to do it, but the pull from the cigarette and the taste of tobacco reminded him of home. He flicked off the cigarette ash onto the ground carefully, making sure not to get any on his Saint Laurent boots. Once he was done, he disposed of the cigarette below him and walked into the building. He entered the classroom, greeted his teacher that would always glance at Woodrow’s receding hairline before making eye contact, and sat down. Woodrow always knew that he wanted to go to school for film, but he always felt like something was missing. Even though he was in his 4th year at SVA, he still questioned if this was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.
Woodrow does not particularly like school, he finds the formalities like attendance and grading unreasonable, as he believes when people turn 18 years old, they are free to do whatever they wish and they should not confirm to simply a letter grade. To put it simply, Woodrow hates institution when he is being at the bottom, at the same time, one of his biggest inspiration in life is to manage others. The decision of continuing with higher education was a shock to everybody who knew him, even his parents—after high school graduation, Pierre was ready to use his connection to introduce him a decent paying front desk job at a dentist office in the city, so he can work something non-demanding while dedicating the rest of the time to experiment with filmmaking.
“Since you are late, you might as well walk quietly so noise of your Saint Laurents won’t disturb the class.” the woman fixed her eyes on Woodrow as he gallops into the half empty classroom. Don’t get her wrong, she likes all of her students, but she has a particular preference for him because she has always been a big fan of Pierre Woodrow’s re-imagined leather jacket.
“I do apologize, Ms. Oakley, but you know I am the biggest fan if your class.” He put on a mischievous smirk, he almost felt bad for being 20 minutes late to a film class as a senior, after 4 years, he had earned the right to be late.
The professor resumed: “You guys are in for a treat today, we are going to watch a great film. For your information, if you are not comfortable with depiction of straight sexual activities, it’s ok for you to leave now.” The whole class chuckled. Woodrow was about to get into a comfortable position to doze off as he thought it will be another cheesy Hollywood Romance like the Titanic.
It was Boogie Nights! The glamour infused with self-deprecating humor begins at the first second, it showed an era of uncertainty and transition in the porn industry, as videotaping surpasses theater and the dawn of the 1980s, which had changed the lives of a number of actors and producers in California. Woodrow felt empowered and encouraged, as Boogie Nights demonstrated an alternative way of filmmaking through a funny, unconventional storyline. Despite the resistance and possible discrimination he will face as a black person in Hollywood, he is now more confident in his decision to continue it.
Overall I thought this project was a success. My partner and I were able to create something that was different from other groups. It was fun to finally screen print again and what better way to get into it than my first art project in college. Some things could have been done better such as printing on the coat more clearly so you could see more drawings rather than having a lot of it being abstract. Collaborating and being able to have a partner help was fun because I couldn’t have tackled this on my own with the time that was given. The research that I had to do was signing up for the print shop and figuring out how we would bring everything together into one piece.
