Assignment 1 - Claire Thompson

I’m Claire Thompson, and I think it’s worth noting that I was so-lovingly named after the classic and iconic B-52’s song “Planet Claire”.

Besides my birth-connection to new wave music, the number one thing that defines me is my unconditional love for the arts—as in everything from painting to pottery to film to music to theater. In my life, I have never wavered from thinking that I would grow up to be a starving artist. Other than visual art, I love film, and I’m the HC Film Club president (which is definitely one of the most fun things I get to do in my life). 

I visited the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburg over the summer, and just before I left the museum, I teared up just a little bit. I wasn’t crying for any real reason, I think I just felt hopeful. Andy Warhol, especially as a young fresh-out-of-art-school artist, had such an incredible work ethic. In one section of the museum, they had a collection of drawings he had done for advertisements for fashion magazines before he really had any success selling his original work. It said, in a short text accompanying the collection, that Andy Warhol used to be commissioned to do an ad and the very next day would come back with huge piles of work for the commissioner to see. And that is how Andy Warhol started on his path to being one of the most iconic artists to ever live. I think that that’s why I was emotional, because—in some way—I saw myself being able to be successful as an artist just by working really, really hard to do what I wanted to do. (Thank you, Andy Warhol, you touched my soul.)

This school year I just hope I keep making art, and I don’t stop for anything. I am tenderly reminded of the end of second semester sophomore year when, as Mr. Ratliff handed me my chemistry final, he said, “just like all things, this too shall pass.” So that’s how I’m looking at this year: just like all school years, this school year too shall pass, and I will survive.

I guess I’ll wrap this up by saying that www.rookiemag.com is the best website (great DIYs, a lot of fun stuff all by girls for girls), and this video of Bjork talking about her television is one of the most important videos on the internet:

(you shouldn't let poets lie to you)