"Let me show you how beautiful the world is". It is hard to depict my passion without using it, so today I am stubbornly resisting the limits of just words. I leave this statement hanging over these next sentences like it’s an art piece in a gallery. It isn’t just a formula of language anymore, it's confrontational, leading to a viewer's sea of subjective feelings. It’s cocky and naive, shiny and wholesome, and absolutely, terrifyingly manipulative, but regardless, it is not a sentence anymore. Today, I’m letting it hang like an art piece because it is one. Art, individually, is subjective, but as a whole, it's a way to be passionate about passion. It is a way to express feelings in the way they are felt, not to translate them for another’s evaluation. A romantic observation of time and life. It is a love for love, a love for hate, and a love for the difference or combustible relationship between love and hate. It's an appreciation for each of our admittedly insignificant moments of time spent here, and with a looming doom of an ending that has no congratulations with how we dedicate our feelings, it's a way to say thank you to yourself for your love, hate, and time. As an appreciation to our own and other's primitive natures and worlds, we get the freedom to, maybe not value the direction of someone's will, but value that it was there at all and value their life. Let me show you how beautiful the world is by showing you how to love it for what it is. You may not like what you are looking at, but maybe that wasn't the artist's intention. Art is a love for passion without judgement because passion cannot help itself with what it is.

Religion wasn't practiced in my home, nor did immigrant parents expose me to idols within American culture. I never fell into that mindset of creating the goal for an ideal human, so, growing into the world, I had an abundance of curiosity for all sides of life. I couldn't find one belief to dedicate myself to because they all slowly became confining for me and those important in my life. That is where art found its place in my life, or where art let me in. There were no limits except for the ones I would place on myself, but because I was constantly changing, that change would only compliment me. Finally finding the ability to speak, communicate, and love so freely and fluidly gave me fuel. So many people struggle to find a goal for what to love and commit too, but with art, you love through instinct. You can admire or create. You get choices for your choices. I had found this world of appreciation instead of the world of achievement. Dedicating your life to something you love is scary; it may reject and ruin you over things you couldn't help, but I found something that loves me regardless and doesn't expect consistency. And I would've agreed that this might be selfish, but just like me, it doesn't grow by idolizing one person. Art rejects the idea of hating or asking me to hate someone for my own acceptance. I dedicate myself to art because it presents the all-loving omnipotence that others believe their fuel offers for them self. But my fuel truly does accept me, and it does this by accepting what and who I love. And it may be considered a place of debate, but its because it considers the feelings of all.

My history with photography started with my introduction to social media. Only maybe 11 years old, I indulged into a world that had an abundance of images. Starting so young left an impacted and influenced on my mind like how many adults warned, but at this same time, I was practicing visual art. With visual art, I had already witnessed how images could emotionally manipulate a viewer, and this became as much a shield as it was a tool. I quickly began to use photography as a medium; practicing to capture perfection, intention, and deep feeling, as photography and art proved to faultlessly bounce off each other. Here, artists become witness to how simple images with only personally symbolic subjects cannot provide the exuberance of those same motifs for just any spectator, and photographers learn the secret that all moments, regardless of physicality or significance, have the opportunity to hold impact and passion if brilliantly displayed. With my surplus of eyes, I present a portfolio that exhibits just that. These images reveal a watcher, and whether that role is played by you, the subject, or another is kept secret. This portfolio watches emotional vulnerabilities and cycles of oblivion, pain, fear, life, and freedom and allow an awareness of their exhibition. I agree that a camera can teach you new ways to see, but by reminding the viewer that their gaze is known by the subject allows them to understand the impact of their gaze. This feeling that I wanted to evoke came from seeing how each image on social media was typically aware that it would be surveyed, but with time, moments intended for privacy were exposed and then visually raped. My images do not allow for viewers to be safe out of a pictures stillness, as your subjectivity is indifferent to the art's.

My family moved to America, not so they could live the American dream, but so I could. My father, a sweet man, always encouraged me to pursue what I love, and through his every action, he proved this promise to me. Every weekday in the 18 years we have shared, he wakes up before the house, birds, and sun. After eating his breakfast in the dark, he squeezes tightly into his small, shaken car, to the monotonous job managing some office of some company. I used to watch him come home, and, like the machines that whirl in his ear all day, he follows his seemingly wired code where he first showers, enjoys family dinner, prepares for work, and sleeps. And yet, though his tireless routine, his vivacious energy never ceases. Before domestic life, this man scaled mountains, dove and rode on waves and waterfalls, and traveled so far into the water, earth, and sky that he grew lost into it. Now, he wakes earlier than early, making the effort to enjoy a quick kayak before work, or will come home late after mountain biking at a local state park. If he isn't busy reading documents, he is submerging himself into adventure books and articles. And finally, when the weekend arrives, he rests outside, soaking in as much sunlight as he can. He couldn't dedicate his career to his hobby of adventuring, but even so, he didn't just then dedicate himself to that career. I found my daily motivation from my father, and find myself putting his same effort, energy, and time into my goals. Like him, there are many weekdays I now go without seeing the sun, and though the time I spend away from home is for education, it includes indulgence of my hobby (and therefore myself). The school I attend is the Alabama School of Fine Arts, where, after a routine high school curriculum, I spend 4 hours towards my department specialty, visual arts. For me, art started as any hobby: something that you can enjoy for just yourself, yet because of the gracious support from my father and family, I pursued into it, finding more than just something to build my confidence or enjoy. I found that same world of adventure that seems to have entranced my dad. A world where everything that is routine, known, and expected, is thrown out, and all that is asked of passing spectators is appreciation. Art became more to me than something to do when I was free, as it seemly came alive because I began to live through it. My father did not get the same opportunity as me where he could work in what he loves, but he became the support and example of dedication that allowed me to find such a life line. Enjoying your hobby allows for you to enjoy yourself, and as my father has shown me not to hesitate with this self love, I have decided to dedicate my life to art.

Religion wasn't practiced in my home, nor did immigrant parents expose me to idols within American culture. I never fell into that mindset of creating the goal for an ideal human, so, growing into the world, I had an abundance of curiosity for all sides of life. I couldn't find one belief to dedicate myself to because they all slowly became confining for me and those important in my life. That is where art found its place in my life, or where art let me in. There were no limits except for the ones I would place on myself, but because I was constantly changing, that change would only compliment me. Finally finding the ability to speak, communicate, and love so freely and fluidly gave me fuel. So many people struggle to find a goal for what to love and commit too, but with art, you love through instinct. You can admire or create. You get choices for your choices. I had found this world of appreciation instead of the world of achievement. Dedicating your life to something you love is scary; it may reject and ruin you over things you couldn't help, but I found something that loves me regardless and doesn't expect consistency. And I would've agreed that this might be selfish, but just like me, it doesn't grow by idolizing one person. Art rejects the idea of hating or asking me to hate someone for my own acceptance. I dedicate myself to art because it presents the all-loving omnipotence that others believe their fuel offers for them self. But my fuel truly does accept me, and it does this by accepting what and who I love. And it may be considered a place of debate, but its because it considers the feelings of all.

I have been studying at the Alabama School of Fine Arts since my freshman year of high school. While vigorously learning what art is while simultaneously growing and learning my place in the world, I have been able to gain a unique perception of the world. I practice looking at life like it is an art piece, a story, a series of images, or a dance. The art community taught me to appreciate not just the beautiful subjects in a piece, but to also recognize the shameful, and seemingly worthless qualities. This appreciation is a love that comes without expectation, something each of us are desperate for. A love that is forgiving and free from judgement, unchanging no matter how much you do. As it taught me what love is, an appreciation for the simple existence of something, it taught me what life is. I am forever grateful for art being so present in my life, and I don't think I would be alive to say such things if it wasn't for art. The art I create is a representation of this reminder of existing being all that you need to do in life. I achieve this through doing tedious, monotonous work with ink pen, which a viewer would be able to recognize as careful time spent. This monumental imagery is also hypnotizing, and I hope for it to pull my viewers into the space, where they are then absorbed into the web of pen work and then exist with it. I want my work to feel timeless, hugging the viewer into a safe sleep, producing a feeling of fascination, and allow them to feel love through their own love. This scholarship would give me the opportunity to succeed with my art, teaching a forgiving love.