Closing Statement

Believe it or not, but it has taken me a whole semester in order to open up with my writing. From absolutely struggling to be creative with the reinvented folk tale to actually enjoying my time with writing the song story/nemesis paper. And it is not the fact that I did not like some of the assignments, but it was the way in which there truely was no right or wrong approach to the ideas in which you could write about. I have been so conditioned to stating the facts and getting straight to the point from assigned essays and research papers that I found myself actually forgetting how to be descriptive and engaging to the reader.
Unfortunately, the creative aspect that has come back to my writing will probably slowly start to fade away as I focus once again on the classes with their essays and research papers. I wish I could say that I would continue to write creatively, but it is unlikely. I feel in order to continue my creative writing I need free time and that is something my life is lacking at the moment. However, I have still retained the skills in which we have learned in class and may use them in the future when needed or least expected. It may not have shown but I enjoyed the class and wish everyone all the best!

Video Response #2

The second video I watched was of Ueli Gegenschatz and his base jumping/skydiving/paragliding. To me, I think watching him and his video took on a whole new meaning knowing that he was no longer alive. Just to see how enthusiastic he was about this extreme sport and how happy he was to be able to do it makes me feel that even though he is no longer with us, he seemed to enjoy his life very much doing what he loved. I honestly don't think I could ever in a million years attempt to do what he did. My viewpoint is that on some level you have to be okay with dieing in order to do something so death defying. I was also curious and wanted to know more about what some of the 'crazy' things people have asked him to do given what he does is crazy in itself!

Video Response #1

In regard to Vik Muniz, can I just say 'Wow.' His art was absolutely blowing my mind. The way in which he took the most simplistic materials in order to create works of art had me in awe. I think, in terms of creativity in writing, Muniz is trying to show that creativity can derive from many different forms. With him it came from items such as sugar, chocolate, cotton balls, thread, etc. He used those tools to transform them into his own visions. Much like that of our class where we take inspiration from things such as songs with or without words and pictures and transform them into a vision of our own through writing.

When he first showed the picture of the dog- in which he pointed out that you might interpret a spot on his back for a chicken- I was brought back to one of my art classes where an instructor pointed out something to me in the FedEx sign.

At first glance, you see a delivery companies logo. But if you take a closer look, the 'e' and the 'x' join together to form a hidden arrow between the two letters. Now EVERY TIME I see this sign, my eyes go straight to that arrow (and I bet now yours will too!) Creation would be the FedEx logo whereas creativity is what makes us see the arrow.

Open Mic Night

I'm not very familiar with all the buildings on campus so when I walked into the University Center and saw that I would be performing on a stage in such an open area, my nerves got the est of me. However, when all said and done, the Open Mic night was not as bad as I expected. It makes me kind of wish I would have taken it more seriously and prepared something with a little more thought (although I thought my limerick knocked them all dead lol.) In terms of trying to get more people to attend, I do think it should be held at an earlier time though when the UC is more busy. There wasn't much traffic coming through that late in the day- good for my stage fright, bad for the event- and I feel more traffic would attract more people to sign up. Thanks to Marissa for my picture!!!