https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s8oJWUCZBs

No matter what I’m feeling; heartbreak, lonely, excitement - art has been the best friend that’s always there for me. Through art, I have been able to communicate with people of different backgrounds and different languages. With my mom being a Colombian New Yorker, I grew up around everything from hip-hop to salsa. My mother is the biggest influence in my life due to the hard work she has done to be successful in all aspects of her life. Neither of my parents was brought up in New Jersey and didn’t have many ties. Close to the area, my mom was also raised on the east coast, born in Queens and after bouncing around, settled in Staten Island. The roots remained scattered across Colombia but my grandparents decided that a move to the United States would benefit the future family. The melting pot that New York and the city had to offer buzzed with attractive opportunities. However, compilations arose when it came to communicating outside of the Spanish language. My mother approached her first day of kindergarten without a word of English and was ultimately the reason for her parent’s adaptation to their new world. My parent’s cultural background influenced the way I created in all aspects of my life. Art became who I am. Truly, everyone is their own individual work of art. The process of finding yourself through fashion choices, collections of music, and inner self-reflection is an art form in itself. Simply looking at a piece of art has the power to resonate with its audience, even bringing people to tears. Yet, that same piece is open to all interpretations, just like we as humans interpret one another. I am the only person that knows my struggle, and my past therefore it was up to me to decide how to move on and present myself. At the end of the day, everyone just wants to be understood. Every individual is shaped by their own experiences, good or bad, making them the person they are today. The concept of knowing who I am at age twenty is foreign to me. I was given a platform through art to not only express myself but find myself. Delving into the art sphere gave me a new perspective. With every piece I created, I learned there would be errors. I would make a mistake but that didn’t mean I could just throw up my hands and say I was done. Instead, I had to find a way to adjust. In the end, I would be the only person to notice those small mis-strokes of the hand; coming to this realization was a turning point that would change things forever. A tiny shift in the way I looked at things gave me hope for a beautiful world.

My world went from spinning one hundred miles around my finger, like a basketball, to stopping in an instant. For a month after my final concussion, I was on bed rest. I missed out on socializing with anybody other than my mom and lifesize teddy bear, Juno. I saw eye doctors from the suburbs to New York City to design a script; specialized for focusing my eyes on the same line. The struggle to return was endless, computing numbers suddenly became challenging and reading was a whole other catastrophe. I worked three times harder than anybody in class to concentrate and frankly, the most frustrating part was how poorly my grades reflected as a result of daily headaches and post-concussion syndrome. I wasn’t certain if I would ever find something that made me as passionate as basketball, however, I discovered, that what I thought was my greatest failure actually turned into a creative success. Unlike basketball, art wasn’t just a skill, it became a way of life. Delving into the art sphere gave me a new perspective. With every piece I created, I learned there would be errors. I would make a mistake but that didn’t mean I could just throw up my hands and say I was done. Instead, I had to find a way to adjust. Afterall, I would be the only person to notice those small mis-strokes of the hand; coming to this realization and shifting the way I looked at things was a turning point that would change things forever.

As Lil Peep repeats the line, “Isn’t life beautiful? I think that life is beautiful.”, throughout the first verse it is established quickly that his tone is ironic as he compares this beautiful life to a funeral, a fatal illness, and America. Lil Peep juxtaposes the word beautiful with a dead relative, a terminal illness, and police brutality - all of which are clearly not at all beautiful to establish that not everybody’s life has a happy ending. When I first heard “Life is Beautiful” by Lil Peep, I felt an overwhelming sense of sadness rush over me while listening to the lyrics and his melancholy voice. I remember feeling the mind-blowing irony in every word he spoke, especially the way he ended the song saying how he thought one day he would end up dying alone inside his room. Although Peep was in a tour bus and not his room when he overdosed, the similarity between him dying alone was pretty chilling. Sometimes hearing sad songs only make people more upset but this song had the power to give me a new perspective. In hearing Lil Peep talk about the irony of life I struggled with the idea that even though bad things happen, I had so much in my life to be grateful for. I wasn’t dying of a terminal illness. My relatives are in roughly good shape. I don’t have to fear for my life when talking to authority unlike half of the country does. This song had the power to make me feel both grateful and also so sad for people whose lives are not “beautiful”. It wasn’t fair. Life isn’t fair, and that was a big part of the message Peep was trying to send in this song.

Race socialization is everywhere in today’s society from the silence about racial issues to the extremes of police brutality. Because of my white skin color, I never grew up being warned about the racial inequalities in the world. Unlike half of America, I don’t have to fear for my life when having a confrontation with the police. I was never told that the color of my skin might hold me back from being successful one day or that other people would look at me differently because of it. In the town where I grew up it’s predominantly white, the few kids of different ethnicities could be counted on a hand. Ideally if I was to change socialization in my society I would aim to eliminate white privilege and try to get the playing field level. This is ultimately the end goal but it would have to start with hard work among every single American. Many people have a difficult time putting themselves in someone else’s shoes when they lack enough information. In order to terminate the idea of racism, the first step is education. By educating people with stone-cold facts, they cannot argue with history or science.

One of the most inspiring books I have read is Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. Capote appeals to pathos in Persons Unknown of In Cold Blood by including the background of Perry and Dick. By appealing to emotion, Capote somehow humanizes these ruthless killers. In the excerpt included, Perry is recalling a time when he wrote a letter to his sister. The reader sympathizes with Perry as he shares how she is all he has left. As over half of his family has died, there is no doubt he has had a difficult life. Two of his siblings have killed themselves and his alcoholic mother choked on her own vomit. These vivid and sorrowful details included by Capote make the reader feel bad for how Perry grew up. His father however, is still alive but he has abandoned Perry and kicked him out of the house before. As Truman Capote investigates these men, the audience is forced to decide between hating them for murdering an entire family or feeling bad for their circumstances.

I want my artwork to open a gateway for people from walks of all life to come together under the appreciation of my craft. In such a digital age, I believe it is important to preserve the modern hand-made work of artists. Truly, everyone is their own individual work of art. The process of finding yourself through fashion choices, collections of music, and inner self-reflection is an art form in itself. Simply looking at a piece of art has the power to resonate with its audience and be interpreted differently by everyone, as we as humans interpret one another. I am the only person that knows my struggle, and my past, therefore it was up to me to decide how to move on and present myself. I went from waking up annoyed by morning light shining through, to, noticing the hint of color glistening among each ray. Art wasn’t just a skill, it became a way of life. Delving into the art sphere gave me a new perspective. With every piece I created, I learned there would be errors. I would make a mistake but that didn’t mean I could just throw up my hands and say I was done. Instead, I had to find a way to adjust. After all, I would be the only person to notice those small mis-strokes of the hand; coming to this realization and shifting the way I looked at things was a turning point that would change things forever. Imperfection is simply perfection.