Reading this question I was reminded of my small triumphs that I achieved throughout my 2022 Spring semester. Before my spring semester, my classes were all online over zoom and asynchronous. I was in the habit of not having to travel to campus since I also did not stay on campus but classes were moving back to campus. My family and I do not have cars. I thought about catching the bus to campus, meeting new people and seeing my classmates in person and then seeing me. As I thought about all of these possibilities I was confronted with anxiety that left my heart racing and my hands shaking. This anxiety made it really hard to get started with my spring semester. As the time rolled by and classes were starting I considered dropping out of my classes as my anxiety was getting worse. I struggled and struggled and decided to stick to my decision and thought of my future. As the first day of classes came I was attacked with anxiety again while waiting for the bus. While waiting I thought continuously about going back home. I decided to be brave and confront my fear. I kept myself calm, controlling my anxiety with deep breathing and thinking of my goals to get on the bus and start the semester right. After that day I continued living bravely and making bold decisions to set myself up for success. It all started with that first bus ride. As I went throughout the semester every now and then my anxiety would get critical like it did that day, but I continued to fight through it. I even decided to keep it up and found myself in a new job, with new friends and opportunities from this new found bravery.

Honestly, when I read this question my mind felt like it was stretching in different directions across all my favorite art. I was having a hard time thinking about what art would be considered my favorite. If I am choosing from another artist’s work and not my own then it will be more interesting. I am super excited about this question and there are so many possibilities and routes I could go. The more I think about my options, the closer I get to my favorite. Caravaggio’s “David with the head of Goliath” from the Baroque period is my favorite piece of art. I love the dramatic look of the art from the Baroque period that comes from the super dramatic contrast with the light and dark. The look of this painting feels like there is conflict between the shadows and highlights, like the subject of the art is in conflict themselves. The conflict can be physical, mental, emotional, or religious depending on how it is perceived. That idea of conflict is so intriguing and brings a sense of humanity and mortality. This is even further captured when I found out the head of Goliath is Caravaggio himself. This is intriguing to me because I have been very interested in the conflict of the mind and body of humanity since I have been in conflict with myself for as long as I can remember. The fact that Caravaggio has himself decapitated and is the villain of the story shows some conflict. I love that self conflict and self image that he has promoted. I thought he would be the hero but instead he is the dead villain. It shows how controversial and radical he is as an artisan of his time. That is amazing and inspiring to me.

Music can do miraculous things like evoke memories, emotions, or inspire. For music to inspire me, music should remind me of my real emotions or remind me of my hard work to better myself. Kota the Friend has made a song that motivates and inspires me every time I hear it called “Needs”. Kota The Friend is a very honest artist. In the song “Needs” he talks about avoiding distractions, burying himself in his work, and the sacrifices he made to succeed. Some sacrifices were good like not wasting money on stupid things and some were bad like not having time for family. He doesn’t brag but simply says what he accomplished and what he did to get there in a humble but proud tone. Kota stayed focused and stayed humble as he received the things he deserved for his hard work. That by itself inspires me, hearing what he sacrificed and how he worked to be better. He closes the song repeating that he got what he got because he deserves it. This personally inspires me because the message sinks in as the music fades and I finally feel seen not for my accomplishments but the hard work to achieve them. This song inspires me because I’m very humble and I work hard not to be the best but because I want to be a better me. I forget how hard I work and when something good happens to me I am confused, like I don’t deserve it. So, when I listen to “Needs” it reminds me of my hard work, humbles me, and makes me feel seen and appreciated. This song reminds me I deserve the good things and I made sacrifices to get where I’m at. This is how “Needs” truly inspires me.

A pitch dark house without any lights. Pure silence except for the sound of cars racing past outside the gaping windows. Pure darkness except for one shining grace. The only beacon of light was the luminous street light from the road in front of the house. Power. Electricity. Lights. Energy. Whatever name you might call it, my family did not have it around the end of my 8th grade school year. We were without power not because we didn’t pay the light bill but because our landlord was a horrible person at the time. He was very angry and vengeful. He didn’t like us and wanted us out of his house. Since he knew he was in the wrong and had nothing against my family he decided to take matters into his own hands. So he started making the house unbearable. He started by cutting off our power. This made the house extremely hot and made it hard to wash and dry my school clothes and keep food in the house. This made it harder to get good sleep, eat good food, and have clean clothes everyday for school. It was truly hard to get homework done while being distracted by a growling stomach, a smelly house and trying to see in the dark. I persevered through it all with a positive attitude and ingenuity. I used the same saving grace outside from the street to get my homework done. Despite not being able to use the washer or being able to store food in the fridge, we hand washed clothes and ate sandwiches like 5 star meals. That was my life for the next 2 weeks until the authorities stopped our landlord. This was a truly difficult situation but I persevered through it with positivity and ingenuity.

Visual art! Visual art is what I am most skilled at. More specifically I am very skilled at drawing with pencil, ballpoint pen, archival pens, and charcoal. Drawing has always seemed natural to me. The use of lines, cross hatching, hatching, smearing, light shading, highlights, and shadows. Drawing is definitely where my love of art originated and I have been constantly falling deeper in love with drawing and improving my drawing skills. My university has recently started transitioning back to campus and I decided to use that opportunity to improve my drawing skills. So, I got creative and challenged myself to draw someone randomly everyday. This also involved asking people if I could draw them since I didn’t want to be super creepy stalking people and drawing them. This was an amazing challenge because not only did I get to meet new people but I also got to work on my people skills and my drawing skills at the same time. This was an awesome way to improve my drawing skills because even though I am really talented at drawing, I have not drawn many people. Drawing objects and drawing people are massively different drawing experiences. Drawing a person is more challenging because you are working to catch that person's features, personality, and essence in real time. I’ve never had to do that before. Also, objects won’t move mid-drawing. Taking on this challenge improved my drawing skills by allowing me to become better at recognizing facial features as shapes, improve my drawing speed, and allow me to experiment with new techniques I’ve never used and learn when and how to use them. To this day my drawing skills have massively improved and I still continue to do portraits of people around campus and improve my drawing skills even further.

Out of all the western animated shows I’ve seen, Steven Universe Future truly impacted me the most. It shows what happens when you don’t deal with your own issues and instead help everyone else. So what happens when there are no more problems for you to “fix”? Steven was struggling with his own traumas that he didn’t deal with because he was helping others and didn’t confront his own. Everyone he has helped rushes in to help him. This made me cry because I am the same as Steven. Seeing Steven struggle and then being comforted by the ones he helped resolved some conflict within myself about being “strong” and not dealing with my traumas. It was therapeutic and reminded me I am vulnerable and need help the same way I help others. It truly helped me and taught me that I should confront my traumas and be more vulnerable.

Hi, my name is Kendrik James or Ken for short. Anime, games, food, reading, movies and photography are my life! I’m a goofy, loving person that loves to use my craft to express myself and relate to others. I am a multi-talented visual artist that loves both art and music. At one point I considered becoming a saxophonist rather than a visual artist. Saxophone will continue to be a hobby because I truly love music. Even though I love music, I love making visual art more because of how I can inspire, express, and relate to my viewers. So naturally, I believe art is super important to society. Visual art can do so much more than just look nice and record history. Many may think that to make art, all you have to do is make something pretty or make something pleasing to the eye. Yes art can be for this but this is only the tip of the iceberg, and only the tiniest fraction of art's importance and capability to society. Art is important to society for connection and expression. I think art has a powerful importance of expression and empathizing with others simply because of my own experience as an artist. I have personally experienced art's major impact and importance in people and in myself. At first when I started art it was for fun and was entertaining to me. As I got older my life started becoming more complicated and stressful. Art was my way of expressing myself when I didn't have a voice. My voice, my thoughts, my concerns, my beliefs, my happiness, my anger and so much more. My art embodied everything I had a hard time expressing. At an art market I met Kris. Kris was a very happy, giddy person and was one of the dancing performers at a holiday art market I was vending at. After the performance she was taking a look around, very open to everyone's crafts. As she walked past my table a piece of art called Enter-Connected caught her eye. Enter-Connected, briefly, is about dealing with your past and accepting what you have gone through because it has made you who you are. She couldn't resist asking me about the artwork and telling me what it reminded her of. I listened to her creative expression of my artwork. It was an amazing experience. As she finished, I stated how much I appreciated her and proceeded to tell her the meaning behind Enter-Connected. As I explained she listened with an open mind and her eyes began to water. Her expression told me she needed to hear these words today and appreciated hearing them. She was relieved and expressed her feelings. This woman I never met, who was constantly happy, was now crying and expressing her personal feelings to me. I saw a much more personal emotional side of her due to my artwork. My artwork ignited not only her imagination but her emotions as well. I was vulnerable to her and in turn she was vulnerable to me about her experiences. This expression was very therapeutic for the both of us. The artwork allowed us to express ourselves and get things bothering us off without being judged. I related to Kris and that created a sense of vulnerability and safety. Everyone deserves to express themselves and know they are not alone with what they go through. I walked away from this market with artwork sold but more importantly I inspired, related to, and helped someone express themselves. This is why I think art is important to society.