A Sense of Purpose

"Go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. The are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how or badly, is a way to make your could grow."
-Kurt Vonnecut

Today I decided to write a personal blog post due to the emotional, nerve-wracking, exciting day I have endured today. Driving onto campus this morning at 8 a.m, here I am writing to you at 7 pm with my day not being over for another four hours. While my school days for my senior year have gotten longer (15 hours longer), I couldn't be happier with the chaos that is my life.
Today I had a critique for my second project for Advance Photography. I was absolutely terrified to show these photos to my peers, none the less my classmates. As I saw them looking at my work, I noticed something different from project two versus project one. My classmate were coming up, close and personal, looking at this series while during project one's critique they stood a comfortable distance. My classmates laughed and gasped while looking at my photographs. While that could offend some photographers, It made me feel a sense of relief. My photographs were envoking emotions yet allowing my classmates to feel comfortable enough to look and speak freely on my work. I felt a sense of huge success from this that I thought I felt with Project One but truly feel now. I believe project one gave me success intellectually, and while I do believe project two gave me that same success of learning a totally new way to how to photograph and depict my message, I have felt a sense of spiritual success with this project. As I move forward to project three, it's important to me to keep this idea meaning and purpose with my work. I honestly believe looking at the work I've created this semester, its the most directed work I've created since high school. I think it's my most directed because it has been an honest depiction of my personal struggles and experiences with relationships along with coordinating others who can't use their voices in the same way I am able to. This is something that is so important to me as I move forward with my next project, pre-thesis, thesis, and work after school.