I have really talented nieces and nephews. The post below comes from my 16 year old niece, Naomi Bu.
She is talented in so many ways. I will be posting some of her artwork over the next few months. Keep an eye out for her work.
By Naomi Bu
As a habitual over-thinker, my speculation with the fleeting collection of objects and people in my life has given me reason to create a more conscious level of awareness in things that are presumed to be ordinary. In the pursuit of perceiving the world differently than others, I have been able to create works that envelop my thoughts of insecurity and disclose those that are deeper, explorative, and more honest to myself as an individual.
My infatuation with people and their relationships are what make me believe that the ways we dress is an extension of our identity. At times, fashion gives people a pillow of comfort to rely on for its ability to enhance and depict a kind of character we want to exhibit. However, it simultaneously offers a troubling dependence on masking something that we might be uncomfortable with. These contradictory relationships that people may share with clothing are deeply enthralling to me because I am consumed by the thoughts of fashion and uncertainty. Rather than thinking that I have a “passion for fashion,” I think that what clothes have offered me is a truthful narrative. They share a sliver of insight into our past and current self whether it is intentional or not. This concept continually perpetuates the relevance of fashion in my life, and, as well, bleeds into my idealization of other people’s lives. The two vital subjects of fashion and people that are so precious to me are what have led me to believe that the product of their marriage, fashion communications, is the vocation that I should take.
For most of my time in school, I believed that I was un-academic. Similarly to most kids that are uninterested in a course like math, I was the one who did everything but listen to the lesson. Instead, I was drawing in the margins of my notepaper, looking at the scratches and graffiti made by other students on the desks, or drifting off and staring at the markings on the ceiling. For the rest of the class I would be sitting at my desk drawing motifs of the patterns that I was seeing. I had this necessary need to make visual documentations in my head as if they would be forgotten the next second. I had thought that maybe I just wasn’t smart; I had never been quick to understand proficiently what a certain concept in math or science really meant if I wasn’t intrigued by it.
I struggled with these manifesting thoughts of inadequacy and not being “smart” enough for a large part of my school experience. It only took the conviction of myself to understand that it was simply my disparate interest in the visual world around me and the way I interpreted things, that was radically different from most. Because of this divergent thought process, I have been able to develop my personal voice that expresses myself as an artist and as a contributor to my unfixed environments. This notion of a distinct voice in particular is what I believe I have to offer to this graphic and communication design course for the art and design foundation.
My pursuit to expose fragments of myself through my work in intriguing ways and exploit my unique personal strengths has always been my ensuing intention. The ambition to create things that resonate and persuade viewers is an ability that I believe distinguishes me from others. In attending the school, my prospect to learn from others, fail, and ultimately be encouraged to feel uncomfortable, is what I hope to realize as being a part of the course. In consequence of this, I am sure that I will find with a higher level of confidence in what I love and what keeps me excited.
Discovering these things is a necessary advancement to catapult myself into the continuously changing and ephemeral industry that is fashion, as an art director or publications editor. The ongoing aspiration to be present and collaborating in the workplace environment is what convinces me that fashion communications is a remarkable vehicle to help me gain a greater understanding of how I can get there.
As I try and think about my interests, I realize unequivocally, I like many things, too many to encapsulate into categories. Of course I enjoy great art, films, and getting lost in the depths of the blogosphere, but I ask myself what common thread unifies them together. My interests are of who we are as people and the significance of the opinions and perspectives that we carry. The beliefs coming from those who inspire me the most are from the individuals who seemed to never feel accustomed to where they were in their life. It was their brilliance that held them back in terms of their personal fulfillment. Though I have no desire to share this commonality, I yearn to affect others as much as these muses that have affected me. But unlike my revered inspirational counterparts, I want to have more. It would not be enough to have a legacy that impacts others, but I want the fulfillment. In knowing that passion is the single greatest determinant to achieve this, I will without hesitance, pursue the things I have alluded to in this statement, as these are the things that I know I love the most.
**The painting of the girl sitting with the blue hair is based off of a sculpture by Choi Aoo Ang called “the dreamer blue.” I painted it in acrylic and it’s then layered with 3 sheets of transparent mylar paper to achieve the layers of her dress. For the layers I used alcohol markers and a thin wire mesh fabric. The piece was meant to acknowledge that just like people, clothes possess layers too.
