The following is one crazy night's worth of writing, the night before the deadline, of course. go me. I haven't posted any blogs before, but I thought perhaps this would help my friends to get to know me on a more literary level, and share in my back-to-art-school-?-adventure. I have yet to send ECA a portfolio. =/ That will be the hard part. Open to suggestions. Also, open to comments on my writing. =)
I used to write the greatest Purpose Statements. Full of unbridled passion and untested mettle, I would unabashedly weave together captivating tales of my history, experience and purpose. Pages of drama and danger they were—one swish short of a swordfight—climaxing with a not-so-subtle suggestion that I would single-handedly change the world. After ten years, my college education, professional development, and living experience forced me to finally relinquish such romantic ideals. I no longer believe that I can single-handedly change the world. But I do believe that we, as a global community, can. “We don't accomplish anything in this world alone ... and whatever happens is the result of the whole tapestry of one's life and all the weavings of individual threads from one to another that creates something”. These words, which Sandra Day O’Connor was so inspired to articulate, speak to this shift in perspective. Art, communication, relationship, beauty, truth, goodness, life, love, us: concepts I once sought out separately now seem to synonymously weave together, like a Celtic knot so intricately designed that you cannot see where one cord ends and the next begins. Indeed, it seems as if none of the cords end at all.
In the tapestry of my life there is woven magic and poetry; saturated colors spun from a dancing imagination, indications that I can best serve my community not with anything I would initially assume to be practical, or necessary, but with ideas; ideas strengthened in their sharing, caught up into the universal language of picture and word, divided simply into character, setting, plot, and conflict: stories. Not the stories that tempt us to escape our humanity, that merely distract, or divert, but the ones that help us explore deep within it; portals to the great questions of human existence, cleverly disguised from, “Once upon a time…”
As an essential way for us to understand ourselves and the world around us, narratives have been given a crucial commission in our global community. In a postmodern era obsessed with questions of identity—from sexual, to cultural, spiritual to digital—stories offer avenues of exploration. In a diverse and fragmented society, stories help us see connections. In a fluctuating economy, stories help us adapt quickly. In a conflicted environment, stories offer perspective, reveal commonality, and show us how to envision peace. Stories help re-enchant a world sterilized by a fact-or-fiction dichotomy. Stories heal, nurture, and empower.
It is in the telling of such stories, through illustration and through literary works that I intend to both find and create my place within the global community; and through your school that I intend to further develop and refine my story-telling skills. It is my desire to be accepted into your Illustration program on the third year level, utilizing my experience in art school, the general education credits from my Bachelor's degree, and my professional understanding to complete your Bachelor's of Art in Illustration degree in two years time. It is my hope that by merging visual and literary art, through the demands of a degree program and the inspiration of a diverse artistic community, that I will emerge as a storyteller of prolific hand and prophetic nature, capable of enriching and challenging our global community through narratives both personal and universal.
When I initially attended art school, it was for simple, selfish reasons: I enjoyed it, and I was good at it. Ten years later, the cord of romantic idealism frayed, I am ready to reengage my creativity, weaving together visual and literary art forms while honoring the vital position of illustration and narrative as a means of both expression and communication, understanding that I must both suffer for, and delight in, my work as a storyteller as I endeavor to engage a global community.
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