My third project was focused on why I make tangible objects. I wrote an essay explaining my reasoning for creating projects with a purpose.
In a world where self expression is looked down upon, I felt like a mere shell in my being, unable to fill the void of this gaping hole inside me.
As a scared freshman just starting high school I was hidden, blending in with the crowd. I was an insecure 14 year old girl, hanging out with people who influenced me into not caring about school, grades, and responsibilities. I was hiding behind a mask. I felt myself becoming malleable, fitting into the mold of what I thought high school was. What I thought high school wanted me to be, certainly not living up to my potential. I noticed that I wasn’t myself anymore. I began to feel alone. Even with my “friends” around me. I didn’t feel as though I had a purpose in life. I started losing interest in things I once loved. Depression started chipping away at me, then consumed me. My friends had convinced me that everyone now a days is depressed. It was cool to be depressed. While they put on a mask on of fake depression, I put on a mask of fake smiles.
The second half of my freshman year I decided to take a art class with Mr. Grandi. I had never really felt a pull to art. All of the basic art classes in grade school never really struck my eye. I hadn’t given myself the opportunity to be immersed in my own creativity. To get inside of the mind of myself. My “friends” and I had decided to take a 3D art course because it would be “easy”; all of our schedules were rearranged so we had the same lunch and classes together. I felt empty during my other classes but whole when I created. When demonstrations were going on my friends didn’t pay attention, making sly remarks and giggling in the back. I tried to stay in the back with them in hopes to seem cool, but I was just too interested in what was being constructed. I would feel so giddy inside when I would get new ideas because the teacher, Mr. Grandi, helped me establish ideas into tangible products. I had found that all of my free time was spent on making new projects, even staying after school to work on new “experiments”.
After the first month of being in the 3D art class, Mr. Grandi pulled me aside one day, he asked me “Why do you hang out with the girls you do?” I was taken aback. My parents asked me the same questions. I told him that they were my friends. Mr. Grandi went on to say that “These people who you think are your friends are actually holding you back. You have potential; You just need to find it”. I soon began falling in love with making tangible products that I could call my own, taking advantage of every medium, moment, and idea. In the course, we worked with different mediums. I had found myself diving down a rabbit hole of mediums. I poured my heart into the clay, corks, styrofoam, wood, wire, plaster, wax, resin; you name it, I made it.
Mr. Grandi convinced me to take a course called Apollo. Apollo is combined of three classes English, Social Studies, and Art. In Apollo, you get to learn the same criteria as regular classes while learning about things you are interested in. Each semester there are four total projects in Apollo with projects running about three to four weeks. Apollo has helped me gain so much knowledge about subjects that I am passionate about. My art especially has grown immensely as I have learned new techniques and gone out of my comfort zone when working with diverse mediums. In Apollo, I truly feel like I have found myself, my calling. I have struggled with anxiety and depression for many years. I never had a outlet to plug my creativity into. The time and space in Apollo has allowed me to see my ideas through. It has also taught me how to problem solve and look at art, things and life differently; allowing me to see unboundless perspectives.
Apollo has helped me appreciate taking an object from its raw state and transforming it into a new form, a new purpose. It’s like I can see into an object and give it a new potential. I’ll see a worn object on the side of the road or out to be thrown away. I look into the object; I then begin elaborating in my head what all I could make with this object. All the possibilities endlessly awaiting me. Taking in all of its scars, I judge whether I should take item or not. Many of my ideas are just experiments. I appreciate the medium for the knowledge it brings me whether my product ends up how I imagined it to be or not.
Looking back at my high school career, art has pulled me out of a black hole. Art has given me the freedom and confidence to express who I really am. The new life that I have given my art in return has given me a new life.
Mr. Grandi, through his great knowledge of art and people has helped me learn to fear no medium. He has also helped me to mature as an artist and a person. That fearlessness and maturity has guided me to a career choice: Art Therapy. After seeing the amazing effects art has had on me, I feel the calling to give that to others. I also have a strong desire to help others. Art Therapy combines both art and helping others. I am fortunate enough to have been accepted into my first choice college, Shippensburg University. I plan to major in Psychology and minor in Art. I realize that I will need to pursue a Master’s Degree to reach my final goal. I’m happy knowing that I will be pursuing two things I love: art and helping others.
As a scared freshman just starting high school I was hidden, blending in with the crowd. I was an insecure 14 year old girl, hanging out with people who influenced me into not caring about school, grades, and responsibilities. I was hiding behind a mask. I felt myself becoming malleable, fitting into the mold of what I thought high school was. What I thought high school wanted me to be, certainly not living up to my potential. I noticed that I wasn’t myself anymore. I began to feel alone. Even with my “friends” around me. I didn’t feel as though I had a purpose in life. I started losing interest in things I once loved. Depression started chipping away at me, then consumed me. My friends had convinced me that everyone now a days is depressed. It was cool to be depressed. While they put on a mask on of fake depression, I put on a mask of fake smiles.
The second half of my freshman year I decided to take a art class with Mr. Grandi. I had never really felt a pull to art. All of the basic art classes in grade school never really struck my eye. I hadn’t given myself the opportunity to be immersed in my own creativity. To get inside of the mind of myself. My “friends” and I had decided to take a 3D art course because it would be “easy”; all of our schedules were rearranged so we had the same lunch and classes together. I felt empty during my other classes but whole when I created. When demonstrations were going on my friends didn’t pay attention, making sly remarks and giggling in the back. I tried to stay in the back with them in hopes to seem cool, but I was just too interested in what was being constructed. I would feel so giddy inside when I would get new ideas because the teacher, Mr. Grandi, helped me establish ideas into tangible products. I had found that all of my free time was spent on making new projects, even staying after school to work on new “experiments”.
After the first month of being in the 3D art class, Mr. Grandi pulled me aside one day, he asked me “Why do you hang out with the girls you do?” I was taken aback. My parents asked me the same questions. I told him that they were my friends. Mr. Grandi went on to say that “These people who you think are your friends are actually holding you back. You have potential; You just need to find it”. I soon began falling in love with making tangible products that I could call my own, taking advantage of every medium, moment, and idea. In the course, we worked with different mediums. I had found myself diving down a rabbit hole of mediums. I poured my heart into the clay, corks, styrofoam, wood, wire, plaster, wax, resin; you name it, I made it.
Mr. Grandi convinced me to take a course called Apollo. Apollo is combined of three classes English, Social Studies, and Art. In Apollo, you get to learn the same criteria as regular classes while learning about things you are interested in. Each semester there are four total projects in Apollo with projects running about three to four weeks. Apollo has helped me gain so much knowledge about subjects that I am passionate about. My art especially has grown immensely as I have learned new techniques and gone out of my comfort zone when working with diverse mediums. In Apollo, I truly feel like I have found myself, my calling. I have struggled with anxiety and depression for many years. I never had a outlet to plug my creativity into. The time and space in Apollo has allowed me to see my ideas through. It has also taught me how to problem solve and look at art, things and life differently; allowing me to see unboundless perspectives.
Apollo has helped me appreciate taking an object from its raw state and transforming it into a new form, a new purpose. It’s like I can see into an object and give it a new potential. I’ll see a worn object on the side of the road or out to be thrown away. I look into the object; I then begin elaborating in my head what all I could make with this object. All the possibilities endlessly awaiting me. Taking in all of its scars, I judge whether I should take item or not. Many of my ideas are just experiments. I appreciate the medium for the knowledge it brings me whether my product ends up how I imagined it to be or not.
Looking back at my high school career, art has pulled me out of a black hole. Art has given me the freedom and confidence to express who I really am. The new life that I have given my art in return has given me a new life.
Mr. Grandi, through his great knowledge of art and people has helped me learn to fear no medium. He has also helped me to mature as an artist and a person. That fearlessness and maturity has guided me to a career choice: Art Therapy. After seeing the amazing effects art has had on me, I feel the calling to give that to others. I also have a strong desire to help others. Art Therapy combines both art and helping others. I am fortunate enough to have been accepted into my first choice college, Shippensburg University. I plan to major in Psychology and minor in Art. I realize that I will need to pursue a Master’s Degree to reach my final goal. I’m happy knowing that I will be pursuing two things I love: art and helping others.