Artists Statement (1)

My initial intention when I became involved in this assignment was to construct a strict documentation piece about the Boys and Girls Club. This piece was going to provide the audience with a clear-cut view of the Boys and Girls Club and it’s services-ranging from its mentoring programs, to its extracurricular activities. While utilizing this strategy, it suddenly seemed too plain to me, therefore I encouraged myself to be more creative. That is when I came across the idea of constructing my essay in a poetic form. This, I figured, will not only give the audience a clear-cut view of the Boys and Girls Club, but will also provide meaning for the Club’s services more effectively. Having this “poetic form” approach in mind, I then began to go on a photo “tour” within the Club. I’ve learned while using the camera as an investigation tool that one can either take pictures subjectively or objectively. Since I was more focused on being nonbiased towards the Club, I took the majority of my pictures at random.

While on this photo “tour” through Escuela Vieau, my experience was profound. Aside from learning how to work the camera, I learned a great deal of information about the program and its intention. The program’s intention was to prepare its students for future years through mentoring programs and extracurricular activities. Acknowledging this inclined me towards the phrase “Success Starts Here”. This is what also encouraged me to create an essay about “success” in general, and use other aspects that constitutes to “success” such as work, play, and listening. While having these 4 aspects embedded in my mind, I began to take pictures of everything that represented them.

After gathering a series of portraits that represented my 4 aspects, and organizing them in a poetic form, I decided that the best way to provide more meaning to my piece was to incorporate a series of scholars’ quotes. This is what persuaded me into finding different scholars’ quotes that, in a sense, described my 4 aspects. Upon my research for quotes, I ran across Albert Einstein’s quotation that placed these 4 aspects in a formula. Because how relevant it was to my essay and how creative, I decided to use his quote as the focus of my piece and expand off of it.

Having this “poetic formula” in mind, with a series of portraits and scholars’ quotes, I began to organize my essay in the most effective way. I sought to give the audience a “clear-cut view” of the Boys and Girls Club and “provide meaning” to the programs’ intention. Utilizing Movie Maker to convey this message, with sounds from Freeplay Music incorporated within, I must admit, my Multimedia essay did just that.