Artist Statement

Artist Statement

My multi-genre project focuses on the theme that it is better to stick to your convictions and principals than it is to succumb to peer pressure and go along with the crowd. Sometimes in life, it makes sense to go along with the crowd. It’s nice to feel like you’re a part of something, like when you’re cheering on your basketball team at the state championship or when you’re dancing with a crowd at a show. On the other hand, there are times when you shouldn’t go along with the crowd, like when someone is being bullied by a group of people, and no one is standing up for them. Making the decision to go with the flow or to go your own way is a tough one that we all struggle with regularly.

I chose the theme of sticking to your guns vs. going along with the crowd because of all the things we’ve talked about in circles and in English class this year. We’ve spent a lot of time talking about ideas like how it’s important to recognize that we all come from different environments and different points of view and how that affects who we are. We’ve also talked about how sometimes we’re responsible to ourselves and other times we’re responsible to others. I think it’s interesting to think that we have to choose every day whether or not we want to be true to ourselves or to others, and that’s why I chose to explore this theme in my multi-genre project.

I decided to explore my theme from the point of view of someone who is an outcast, someone who is popular, and someone who is in the middle and has to make a choice. I also wanted to bring up the possibility that the person who is popular doesn’t always have an easy life, like they have their own problems too. I thought it would be interesting to show the different points of view, which are told from a young school girl’s perspective, in genres that a younger person might use: a graphic representation, a poem, a diary entry, and a transcript of a phone call. I put the pieces in chronological order because it made the most sense and allowed them to transition one into the next in a logical order. They should be read in this order: short story, graphic story, poem, diary entry, phone transcript. 

I enjoyed writing all of the pieces, but I think the two strongest pieces are the poem and the graphic novel story. I tried to make the graphic novel entry kind of kid-like and immature in voice but also kind of light-hearted and melancholy in tone, because I wanted the reader to sympathize with the character who is just being herself and is really unpopular but kind of doesn’t get it and kind of doesn’t care. I think that the piece that sounds the most authentic is the diary entry, which is written in an ongoing rant and presents the idea that even the popular people struggle with issues that others might not know about; no one has a perfect life, not even the “cool” kids.

Overall, I really enjoyed this project, even though it was difficult. I like that I had creative freedom to try and write in different ways about a common theme. I also liked having to look at things from different points of view, even the point of view that I don’t agree with. Ultimately, I hope my reader gets the message that in the end, it’s always better to go your own way than to go the way of the crowd.