I n t r o d u c t i o n

    Hello! I've made this blogpost for my Art History Class to introduce myself to you. Something interesting about me is that this isn't my first blog. Back in high school I was very into it actually. Blogging about my personal life, politics, and the occasional fiction story. But then I decided to keep my life private and off the internet, so I began journaling and am now on my third journal. Besides writing, I enjoy photography, music, and organizing. I previously worked as a fulltime photographer for a bit and have worked some freelance photography jobs as well. As far as music, I really enjoy artists with a story to tell. Some that really speak to me would be Hozier, Courtney Love, Bob Marley, Tupac, and even Etta James. As I said, organizing is also an enjoyable hobby for me. If my space is unorganized, my brain is unorganized and if the things around me don't inspire me, then my creativity won't be at its best. I'm frequently guilty of spending hours in search of the perfect additions to my space, but only if it's something I actually need as I am also pretty frugal. I decided to register for this class because I've always loved art and am enamored by those who create it. I'm the type of person who seeks out symbolism constantly within every part of my life, sometimes to an unhealthy degree. Although a lot of times, I can't pick out the symbolism in an art piece. So I miss out on the message the artist is trying to convey. So I'm hoping this class will change that and provide me with a new lens to see what I couldn't see before.

    My relationship to art is indifferent. I love when others create it, even when I can't understand it, but sometim

es when I myself paint, I mentally destroy it. If an artist makes a "mistake" it's beautiful and genius to me, but when I make a "mistake", it's a mistake. So obviously I'm a bit of a perfectionist if the organizing spiel wasn't a big enough clue. I'm trying to reinvent my ways and offer the same praise to myself as I do to others but it's a work in progress. The medium of art I enjoy would be painting. I've only worked with acrylic and watercolor paints but I enjoy them equally. I also enjoy vision boarding, if that's even considered a form of art. For the past three years, my husband and I have spent New Years Eve vision boarding together and it quickly became our favorite amongst all of our traditions. I usually finish hours after him as I will strategically place every little piece of magazine clippings until everything connects and tells the larger story I envision from within. 

    I do enjoy visiting Art museums as well. I've of course visited a lot of museums where I grew up in Minnesota, such as the "Minneapolis Institute of Art". My younger brother-in-law absolutely loves it there and is an aspiring artist himself. So I've got the opportunity to visit the shows his art school would put on, being able to see truly amazing works from talented dedicated teens. I also visited Colorado a couple years ago and visited the "Denver Art Museum" and the "American Museum of Western Art". I spent hours exploring them both until my eyes became physically strained. I found the most intriguing pieces to be of religious nature, even though I don't currently subscribe, my childhood is rooted in Catholicism. I personally believe that most all religious stories are metaphors waiting to be uncovered by the individuals that choose to seek them out. So me being someone who's always looking for the symbolism in life, I naturally assume to understand religious artwork rather than surrealism for example. As far as what I display in my own home, I have a couple of paintings from my brother-in-law, such as a wedding portrait he painted for my husband and I. Other than that, I enjoy putting up art the evokes feelings of happiness within myself.

Pamela Colman Smith