Finding Oneself

I gracefully accepted the challenge brought on by my peers. It was no secret that I was the best artist in my high school due to my countless awards from art shows and endless recognitions but I still lacked the confidence to put my ideas out there. My artistic eye wouldn't get me anywhere in life; I thought it was essentially a useless talent as the world needs more than beautiful portraits and artsy doodles.

I am grateful to have learned what it means to be an artist from my educators and my peers around me. When you’re a kid they put you in art class and teach you to paint or draw with as many colors you want and paint whatever your imagination shows you. Your art gets hung on your refrigerator and your parents tell you they’re proud of you, no matter how sloppy your art is. As one gets older you can lose touch of your artistic side. Being a true citizen is seeing a reality of ugly. Thankfully, I’ve learned to see the world as an artist. I don’t dismiss the ugly, I just try to paint it beautiful. I had a middle school choir teacher who means so much to me all these years and especially now as I apply for colleges. He has always taught me to believe in myself and that my dreams can always find a way to come true. He taught me to be bold and be creative.

In my life I have failed at many things, but I have always been able to recover. When I was in the sixth grade I had convinced myself that I was the most accomplished artist in my entire school; I thought I could challenge an eighth grader in the school’s bi-annual art competition

Since the time I was a wee little toddler, I could think of nothing more enjoyable then picking up a pen and fresh piece of paper and just letting my thoughts ease onto paper. I would sit for hours on end in my room, meticulating over my work and perfecting my then drawing skills. I like many children, was predominantly inspired by the people around me. I always had a knack for observing the likeness of a persons being and then putting my own spontaneous twist on it.

I could take it seriously as a professional artist and still draw comfort from it at the same time. Not only does my art allow me to enter new worlds, but it allows others to enter them too when they gaze upon it. This new thought made me feel worthy despite all that I have been through in the past. I felt like I had a place in the art world and that by pursuing a career as an artist is what I was destined to do.

Cold is a subjective term used to describe the feeling of the absence of heat, and without light, there is only darkness. One of these can only exist with the existence of the other and in spite of it. She could be compared to the times when this rule was ignored; the cool day was filled with kinetic energy, and the pitch-black room was spilling over with the brightest light that anyone had ever seen. This, however, did not mean that she was full of light and warmth, but rather that she encompassed both the dark and the light while she had no ties to either side. This quality is negligible in most scenarios, and in many, she could romanticize herself into an edgy wanderer with a greater understanding than that of her peers. Although, when she faced a massive dilemma, she could not find a way to rationalize her inability to commit into something amazing. There was no way that she could make sense of how quickly she lost hope in her relationship with the knowledge that someone else in the world cared about her.

Creating art gives me a fulfillment, one that makes me feel like I’ve done something good. I don't just do it because it makes me feel good but because I enjoy it. Making something that shows my emotions and then other people start to feel what I feel without words. The way that this can be really seen is when the facial expressions change to what

Ever since I was born, I am surrounded by art. Pursuing art is like my family tradition, I am the fourth generation in my family who decided to use visual arts to share our perspectives to the rest of the world. I am not the kind of people who are good at starting verbally communication. For me, art is the way that I communicate with others. Communicating through art, I was able to let people see the way that I see the world.

This sparked a fiery passion in me. I began to draw daily. It made me feel so good about myself to do art again. I felt I was doing what I am meant to do. I enjoy every aspect of making art. Even though I don’t “enjoy” struggling, I take it on gladly because I know it will help me improve. I’m

To say the least, the struggles in finding my identity is similar to those of Thomas. Thomas struggles a lot between being who is family wants him to me and being who the hip hop culture wants him to be. These two identities shaped most of the decisions that he made in his early life, leading up to and in college. Transitioning into Georgetown, Thomas was experiencing conflicts in which his actions did not match how he was raised at home. Thomas is having to make the decision on whether or not he wants to put on the face for his peers at Georgetown, or his hip-hop community. This is similar to how I felt with my family, after transitioning into a boarding school my sophomore year of high school. I had to put on a different face for my family, after coming out to and growing around my supportive peers at school. I felt that I had to live up to a certain standard at home, which is how Thomas also felt when he began studying at Georgetown.

The arts are a fundamental element of ones human condition as it provides a medium for the freedom of self-expression such as thoughts, ideas, beliefs and culture. Through this, worldviews are communicated and reflected. There is a natural necessity to create as it shares an insight into identity and culture (Wright, 2002).One who contributes, participates and views art, experience and demonstrate imagination, creativity, self-achievement, pride and pleasure. Through implementing arts into early childhood, it can foster and support a child’s mean making, self- expression and holistic development (Wright, 2002). The arts play an immense role in a child’s holistic development as it supports the links between body, cognition, spirit and culture. It is evident the arts have multiple benefits to a child’s visual, spatial, aural and bodily-kinaesthetic modes or multimodal leaning (Wright, 2002). Through this, children are able to record their thoughts and feelings without verbally communicating and this can be done through problem solving. In all environments and cultures, there is a vast amount of visual art that can be seen as a language and symbol system, becoming a powerful tool (Wright 2002).

With the utilization of visual and performing arts, students can begin to enhance their personal growth. By producing original works, enjoying the time spent on the piece of art, and having a sense of pride in one’s accomplishments, an art student will experience an increase in self-esteem and confidence (Importance). A child who receives praise for their art work from parents and teachers will most likely be more positive in their artistic abilities. For example, when a child brings a painting home to his parents and his parents react with smiles, cheers and display the picture on the refrigerator, the student will in turn feel very proud of his accomplishments. This newly found self-esteem and confidence often expands into other subjects at school to the overall benefit of the individual. Participating in art is also a way for students to

In every corner of the Earth, there’s art. In houses, nature, outside. If you don’t notice, you aren’t looking hard enough. Creating art is extremely important to me. All types ranging from music, painting, using Prisma colors and more. Art has always been present in my life, but I began to get serious about it when I visited my Aunt’s home last year. I saw my cousin sketching in a small notebook with a black pen. I asked her what she was doing, and she showed me some pages. It mesmerized me. Her drawings were so flawless, but best of all, they looked like fun. From that day forward, I vowed to make art a part of my world, including all the practicing, art-block and the different mediums of art.

I have always struggled with anxiety. I constantly worry about things I have no control over and often obsess over the safety of my loved ones. Despite the severity of my anxiety attacks, I have always refused to take medication to control my worrying. Thankfully, in eighth grade, I discovered visual art. Drawing has always provided me with a mental paradise. When I create art, I can control what happens to my piece, which helps alleviate my issues with lacking control over most situations. As a child, art eased my concerns that I was the “weird kid” as I was the only one out of my family and my small charter school that suffered from severe anxiety. As bell hooks noted in her memoir, Bone Black, “The books are a new world, I am less alone” (78). I immediately related this quote to the way I felt when I discovered my passion for visual art.

People think it’s so easy to change. They think it’s so easy, but it isn’t. Sure, things don’t always stay the same. You get a new couch, boys come and go, you gain a new scar, discover a new song, or you find a new passion. But in the end you’re still just you. Always spinning and turning in awkward beautiful shapes like a ballerina on a floor, spinning and spinning only to come back to the same position.