For next Tuesday's class (9.15), you must print out the essay below (I mean it: print it out... no excuses). Then, read it--carefully. As you read the essay, make notes in the margins. What are your thoughts as you read?
Up From the Basement
I ran a fish store. After drawing a colorful fish on a piece of paper, I would cut it out, attach it to a piece of clear string, and dangle it from the top rim of a glass fish bowl (so the fish was swimming in the bowl). Then, I would pour beads in the bottom. Sometimes, if I felt really adventurous, I would even draw some seaweed and put that in the bottom with the beads. I sold all colors and all varieties at very meager prices. I also created the money which was used to purchase the fish and the other goods in the town. I was seven.
A game of “shops” would take place in the basement. Not just any basement, though. This was Charlotte’s basement. Charlotte was a person who I always called my adopted grandmother. There was no real adoption involved, it was just because we were so close. Charlotte was my next door neighbor, and I spent a lot of my childhood at her house— and a lot of that time was spent in the basement. I didn’t visit her because I had to, I visited because I wanted to.
Sometimes my best friends Jill and Julia would come with me to play in the basement, they lived in the neighborhood also. We played “shops” quite a lot. I always liked it because I got to make things. Jill and Julia often got bored faster than I did, not just with this, but with a lot of things. The basement was bursting with opportunities for creativity. Charlotte kept so many different crafty things, like beads, paper, strings, and she even had random things like the fish bowls— a good reason to run a fish store. Charlotte always encouraged my creativity, and so did my sister.
My sister, Maya, is nine years older than me, so she helped raise me. Maya was always interested in art, which played a major role in my interest. I would ask her each time she was working on something new to show me how she had done it. The best part about learning from my sister was her patience, something most teenagers don’t have for little kids (especially when it’s their younger sibling). Maya has been a major influence on my life. She was a much better art teacher than any of the teachers I had in high school, ones who actually had the title. More important than the art techniques she taught me was that she taught me patience.
My sophomore year of high school, my art teacher asked me if I knew what I wanted to do in college. I told her I wanted to go to an art school and probably study graphic design. She told me there wasn’t much demand for graphic design anymore (which I knew wasn’t true) and that I should go to a liberal arts school instead. But that was her last year teaching at my high school.
Something else Maya did for me was introduce me to Adobe Illustrator which sparked a further interest in graphic design. My junior year of high school, I brought in my first completed Illustrator piece to school so I could submit it in a competition. When my teacher saw this, she immediately asked me if I would make the poster for the spring musical, Guys and Dolls. I did, and she was pleased with the results. The next year, even though she wasn’t my art teacher anymore, she asked me to design the posters for the fall and spring plays. I really enjoyed making these posters, so it made me even more certain that I wanted to major in graphic design.
Recently, someone told me that I should never stop doing art. I don't think that would even be possible. I can't stop doing art. Art is just as much a part of my life as brushing my teeth—and much more interesting too. If there is paper in front of me, and I have something that leaves a mark, I'll draw on it. If there are scissors too, I'll cut it. If there's clay in front of me, I'll sculpt it. Wire? I'll bend it. I do it almost absent-mindedly. I love art. I love to create. I love the whole process from the first idea to the final product, no matter what medium I'm working in. You just can't stop me.
I fill my sketchbooks with a very random mixture of drawings and doodles, and sometimes I end up with something that’s perfect for something else, or I just want to design further. I love typography. I am really interested in the form of the alphabet and I love to design my own fonts and lettering. I also love sculpture. I like working with clay and found objects. I also enjoy exploring many other art forms.
I don't create just because I'm hoping to hear someone say, "Oh my, this certainly is the best piece of art I have ever seen." I just make art because it’s what I want to do, regardless of what people think of it. In my pieces, I like to make something that may evoke a story or a further concept. Each person who looks at a single piece might have a different idea about it. This is part of what I love about art— hearing the wide range of reactions and thoughts that come from a single work of art. Whether I’m making fish in the basement, or pursuing my passions here at Columbus College of Art and Design— I don't do art to be famous, I do art to be me.
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