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Week 5- broken bones & trampolines

 Week 5- broken bones & trampolines Tampa, FL, 8/3, 4:46 pm *EDITED ON 8/4 TO CHANGE LOCATION* This week, I decided to continue exploring "coming of age" through poetry, specifically, how I've been feeling physically. I feel like something always hurts, and I'm starting to recognize that I'm not as malleable as I was as a kid. I'm not old by any means, but I can sense that I'm getting older.  I started walking daily again, 30 minutes before sunset, and I noticed that I have significantly more energy. I feel more productive and agile- more like myself. Anyways, I felt like writing again, but as with any art form, I felt pressure to make it poetic. So I tried writing with more of a journal format, and I found it to be significantly more enjoyable, and more importantly, it felt more authentic. broken bones & trampolines i went to a trampoline park recently.  i haven't been since I was nine...                  ...

Week 4- black sheep

 Week 4- black sheep Orlando, FL, 7/27, 10:30pm CW:  Mentions of suicide, religious trauma This week, I saw a play at a local community theatre titled The Sunset Limited . It is about a religious ex-con (Black) who saves a nihilistic atheist professor (White) from a suicide attempt, and the entire play is the two debating back and forth about religion and the purpose of life. Black tries to convince White that there is something to live for, while White views suicide as his only escape. Spoiler- White never changes his mind, and ends up killing himself in the end.  For obvious reasons, this left me distraught. Although I don't consider myself religious anymore, I couldn't help but want White to be.  I left the theatre thinking more about religion, specifically Christianity, and my relationship to it. I grew up very religious, and my family still is, and now is one of those times where it feels more present around me.  I hate using the word trauma for fear of mis...

Week 3- (BF4)

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 Week 3- (BF4) Tampa, FL, 7/20, 5:58pm Being with my partner this past week has brought my mind to the concept of love and relationships as it means to me in this "coming of age" period. Duos... twin flames... two halves of a whole... a lot of images of duality come to mind. To what extent can two separate things coexist? How much of a reward makes the risk worth it?  This past week has been incredibly busy. Neither my partner nor I realized how much work goes into furnishing an apartment, so naturally, our days have been filled with Costco trips and Ikea builds. At one point, I found myself distraught, but I couldn't put what I was feeling into words quite yet. I decided to step back for a bit and create, which led me to this work. I realized that I was struggling to feel like we were a team during the building projects, among other things, and just generally disconnected from my partner. I was upset with him, but I didn't feel like I was allowed to be since my emoti...

Week 2- today my wild heart flies

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Week 2- today my wild heart flies Tampa, FL, 7/13, 9:32pm This week's journey took me through the dreaded concept of career/life path that constitutes "coming of age". As I enter my senior year of college, I am faced with a plethora of questions about what I will do next. Recently, this has been overwhelming, so I decided to dedicate this week's creative practice to the seemingly never-ending question: What do I want to do with my life? Again, going for the collage felt less restrictive to me, but this time, I let myself be even freer in the process. I began similarly to last week's practice- planning, placing, making sure the story made sense, and that it looked somewhat "good"- until I realized (quite quickly) that this method was not what I needed. Instead, I played my favorite coming-of-age tunes while freestyling of some sort onto this canvas, still thinking about my future. In my stress, I have asked myself many questions, many of which I have not ...

Week 1- fish(is)?

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Week 1- fish(is)? Orlando, FL, 7/6, 11:03 PM Welcome to my blog! Throughout the next month, I will be documenting my creative process as I explore what "coming of age" means to me through different artistic mediums. I hope that through this exploration, I will discover what purpose(s) I want to give my life, regarding important milestones in categories such as career, health, family, and community/giving back. For this first week, I found myself wrestling with ideas of family and my place in my own family as an emerging adult. During my first year of college, my relationship with my sister turned sour, and I have been struggling since then to consider my home a place where I feel comfortable, along with my growing sense of independence.  I was drawn to visual art this week with a "scrapbook" style. I find painting to be intimidating sometimes... I can easily put pressure on myself to create something visually stunning, rather than focusing on how it feels to create ...