1. I think we define a place just as much as a place defines us. We define a place by what we do to it, how we make it look, and how we treat it. A place can also define us though, by what happens when we’re in that place that molds our lives and helps us learn and grow.
2. Each artist is influenced by their own individual and personal place. Places that are significant in their lives from their past, present, or future. They want other people to see their art the way they see it, they want their own art to inspire others, like someone elses’ inspired them. Look at Kara Walker who was influenced by her cultures past. The slave days in the south influenced her artwork, and she creates silhouettes in scenes from that time period.
3. I feel most connected to Sally Mann. Although I have not been doing artwork all that long, I feel we have a lot of the same views as far as photography goes. She take’s photos of everything in sight. Thinks of the perfect photo and figures out how to create it. The photos she showed of her family were inspireing, as were the photos of the scenery she has taken. Not only do I feel connected to her, I am extremely inspired.
4. As a child one is scared and inspired by a million different places for a million different reasons; here’s a few of mine.
1. The climbing tree at my babysitters; nerve-wracking
2. Deep end of my pool; exciting
3. My Best Friends house; adventurous
4. Australia; historical
5. Historical Society; frightening
5. The Historical Society, here in Bowling Green, I always thought was very frightening. Especially when I started learning about how it is thought to be haunted. There are a million objects within the entire ‘museum,’ like tons of old photos and yearbooks, a switchboard [how they made telephone calls back in the day], a huge medical room where a FINGER is in a jar [this is probably the thing I remember the most], a kitchen/ laundry room with tons of objects from somewhere around the early 1900’s, an infirmary, lunitic home, and slaughter house. The textures very from cold hard metals to soft quilts and the sizes very a lot as well, but overall whenever I went in there I always had a cold chill. The lighting in most of the places wasn’t as dark as it could have been but it was never ever bright. Not to mention that whenever I went to the lunitic asylum, my friends and I always managed to hear a bunch of scary noises!
1. There are a large amount of stories that are portrayed as ‘important’ in books, movies and music. A lot of those become famous when they are a story about when someone who never thought they would find love, does. It portrays that no matter who you are, there is someone out there for you looking in all the wrong places just as you may be. Although I find that story line important and I would hope my future generations figure that out, I wouldn’t call it the most important. I would say the most important story I want to pass down to my children is, to love one another. There’s so much hate in our country and all over the world today, and has been since the beginning of time. I just want them to know that it’s important not to judge and to look at people for who they are and not what they look like, so that something like slavery or the holocaust doesn’t happen again.
2. Some of the stories that are told are because it was an important event in our country(or personal lives) or a funny story of something that happened recently. They continue to be told because they’re an important lesson to be learned or they are just a really funny story. Why do some stories get lost in the mix? Many stories have mearly been forgotten how to be told, some are also forgotten about when the person that started the story and kept it alive in the first place, passes away.
3. Artists use journals or sketchbooks in stories to merely get their thoughts on paper before the lose the fantastic idea. Plus, many times when you start to write one thing you think of another and another and so on, which branches out and gives them many ideas to look at. Also, if you sketch something you can manipulate it over and over again before you start the final project. Then when you do start the final piece, you have a clear idea of what it’s going to be. Journals and sketchbooks are ofcourse works of art. Anything can be considered art; based on what you believe art is. Art is free, and personal. Every person has their own idea of what art is to them.
4. As a child I spent my days not caring what I did, as long it was with my best friend Katie. We’d known eachother since..birth practically and went to the same babysitters house. We spent our time there playing lots of school, because my childhood dream was to be a teacher. We rounded up all of the kids old enough to speak and tried to teach them anything that we knew. It made me really estatic when one of them actually learned something! My other favorite passtime as a child was playing barbies. I collected them like crazy! Every birthday, christmas, and trip to the store I wanted a new barbie. I made them houses all over my room and used washclothes for blankets when I couldn’t find them a real one. I LOVED barbies. The last big thing that I did as a child, was pretend that I was a witch with Katie. We were obsessed with the hit show “Sabrina the teenage witch,” that was popular when we were younger and aspired to be like her! It was a great creative outlet to run around and pretend we could fly. Anything we wanted we could act like we had when we were playing witches. But in the show she didn’t find out she was a witch until she was 16 and by that age, we were slightly grown out of that phase.
My point of view on my childhood now would be that it was a learning experience. I went through different phases but always remained the same person. I figured things out about myself, but still don’t know who I am and that’s fine. Because I think that’s what childhood is. I tried things out and when they didn’t work out I moved onto something else. Some things came naturally and others I have to work hard for. I had the hardest time figureing out what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, and now that I have, i’ve realized that it’s a lot harder than I imagined and I am working for it. My childhood helped me learn that sometimes you have to work really hard for something you really want, while other things might come more naturally. But I figure, if you want something bad enough you’ll work as hard as you have to for it.