Assignment 8 - Claire Thompson

Fears: dying without having left an impact on the world

Annoyances: people who don’t try to think deeply about anything, cynicism, pessimism

Accomplishments: my artistic skill set

Confusions: women who hate feminism, young people who don’t believe in social progress and change

Sorrows: narrow-minded people

Dreams: being able to support myself doing what I love

Idiosyncrasies: spending all my time consuming/contemplating film, poetry, art, social issues, music, etc. instead of doing schoolwork (i.e. constantly pursuing the “wrong” kind academics)

Risks: wanting to become a full time artist

Beloved Possessions, Now and Then: then, every single one of my material possessions. Now, my mind (but still some material possessions)

Problems: neuroticism, hedonism (to a harmful extent)

It’s funny to me the way in which I have been conditioned to think about art. It would seem, since I spend most of my time at school in a program that seems to have very little value for fine arts, that I have come to adopt the idea that art is meaningless to others, only existing to be something fun to look at every now and again, but is largely something that the general population sees as lazy, trivial, and downright silly. But nonetheless, to me art is everything; all of life hinges on art. Humanity is nothing without art in my opinion! But because of that, I tend to think very little of my own abilities and opinions. I just feel like no one could ever care about my art or what I have to say about art. And I don’t just mean paintings; I also mean film, music, theater, poetry, and all the rest. Art encompasses the entire range of human thinking and emotion. When people don’t understand art or the importance of art, I can’t help but assume that they simply do not think deeply about anything and that they must go through life without a single one of their own opinions or thoughts. Do people who don’t care about art have any independent thoughts? What do they think about?

I’m not saying that to be a fully realized person that you have to always think deeply or profoundly; that just sounds like something the MOST pretentious people do. But what I am saying, is that I need to unlearn the thought that art is trivial, a thought that has been instilled in me by people who just don’t want to understand art, or don’t understand that art isn’t just about making pretty pictures.  I feel so pretentious saying that. And it’s not supposed to be. I just want people to love art as much as I do. Every time I go to an art museum, I am filled up by this overwhelming sensation of beauty and intensely deep emotion. I guess that’s passion.