My Path to The Arts

My interest in art has truly grown over the years. My pleasure in creating began when I was only five years old. I would spend hours perfecting the organic mud pie. My only concerns back then were consistency and presentation. In 5th grade I became addicted to the computer screen and the abundance of new tools. I spent countless recesses creating simple works of art in KidPix. When the wave of the World Wide Web finally made it to our family farm I fought with my sisters over equal Internet time. The wealth of new information that the Internet brought, and my new connection to the world, was fascinating.

During high school I learned how to utilize the computer as an artistic tool, to manipulate and create art that surpassed my childhood mud pies with only a few clicks. Experimenting with different software became a passion outside of school. I took every opportunity I could to create movies and slideshows for family members and peers. I was fearless when I faced my computer screen, knowing I could do no wrong, and fully equipped with the undo button, I experimented with all the programs available to me. As I left high school I knew I wanted to incorporate computers into my career, but wasn't sure what field exactly.

When I came to the University of Oregon I dove right into computer programming classes and art foundation courses. I studied art history and expanded my knowledge to three computer languages. However, my creative side was not satisfied. I sought out other mediums like edible materials, fabrics, ceramics, and drawing. Dipping my toes into all the different areas has only expanded my curiosity of the vast potential of materials waiting to be discovered.

In my three years at the university I have been privileged to have many different mediums at my fingertips and the proper facilities to experiment in. There are still so many things I would like to try and many different areas of art I would like to know more about. Materials, color, and interactive digital art are my current interest.

Materials:

The available materials to use in an art context are limitless. I'm so intrigued with objects and their intentional meaning and the possibilities of their forced meaning. I hope that I can further my study of the different types of materials and investigate new possibilities for them in both an artistic form and their practical application.

Interactive:

The fact that I have the power to write a program, application, or website line for line, character for character is such a thrill for me. I love watching my hard work of letters and numbers transformed into something beautiful. I'm particularly interested in writing programs that interact with the viewers and leave much of the outcome at their fingertips. This is a new interest for me and I'm excited to expand my knowledge of different computer languages.