Pt. 1

A bunch of kids found a butterfly and named her Kizzy.   Kizzy’s wing was broken, so to put her out of her misery, they stabbed her 3 times with a pin, and buried her under a tree. 

Pt. 2

After burying Kizzy, the kids climbed to the top of a nearby hill and saw a field full of beautiful butterflies. All the butterflies had a broken wing.

Pt. 3

Upon seeing these creatures from afar, the Butterfly King remembered the wrath which possessed similar animals; the very ones that caused the carnage amongst his subjects. “Never again,” he whimpered.

Pt. 4
"The Kitchen Aid kind of broke. Butter was flying everywhere. So much for cookies."

Pt. 5

“Yer gonna pay for that.” She saw the officer at the edge of the demo kitchen, handcuffs ready. “Just coz’ it sez Home Depot don’ mean it’s YOUR home.”

                

Artist Statement

Writing the tiny stories was more complicated than I anticipated.  Apparently finding something I wanted to say, and finding something I was able to say with the restrictions placed upon us, were two different things.  Creating interesting stories, with only 30 words available, seemed daunting.  How I ended up writing my stories may not have been the best method in hindsight.  I would think of a story, write it out, and then take out the most unnecessary parts, till I was within the limit.  A possible better way to have done this would have been to start with the most minimal aspect of the story, and add on parts till I reached the world limit.  This method would have made my stories more full to me, and I would guess I would have been more satisfied with them. 

The aspect I liked best about the tiny story project was collaborating.  I like collaborating, because it makes me feel more freedom to explore a wider array of options, then when I’m working alone.  Even to me this sounds opposite of what it should be.  The reason I feel this way is because I have a back board to hit ideas off of, in the other person I’m working with.  And in return I get to be their backboard.  This process allows for a bit of checks and balances, which for me, can help produce the greatest product possible. 

                For the majority of my tiny stories written, I was really influenced by the archetype of thriller stories.  Everyone else in my group was guys, and I figured this would be something that appealed to them.  I would put the characters in hopeless situations, and leave it for the next person in the line to hopefully get them out of it, comment on it, or plunge them into something deeper. 

        In the essay we read for our class, D.J. spooky talked about exabytes. The University of California Berkley understood it to be 5 exabytes of data approximately equals "all words ever spoken by human beings.”  I would never be able to go through every exabyte of data available to me, nor would anyone else.  This knowledge made my perspective of this assignment shift a little bit.  By telling my story in as few words as possible, I’m making it so much more accessible to so many more people.  It’s like a vine. Think of how many of those you can watch a day.  If I had a strong message I wanted to share with as many people as possible, and it would reach more people through a vine, then a full length feature film, I would probably chose the vine.  I got an opportunity to do that this week.  

Music Mosaic

The Winner Is- Little Miss Sunshine

The song I chose to do my music mosaic on is called “The Winner Is,” from the film Little Miss Sunshine.  Coming up with what I wanted to express from the song was a process that only took shape after I started creating my images. The first image is very different from the last image. However, from the beginning, before I even put brush to paper, I knew I wanted to blend two worlds.  I wanted to blend reality with something totally contrived.  This idea came partly from the sounds within the song.  For the majority of the song, there are at least two very distinct sounds.  One is almost industrial to me—that sound represented reality.  The other was lighter and more whimsical—and that represented the illustrated world around the real subjects.   Another reason I chose this approach was because even without looking that deep into the music, that’s the feeling the music inspires in me.  It makes me think of journeys and going places that I’ve never gone before, even if they are imaginary. 

                The film The Cider House Rules was something I thought about quite often when listening to the song.   In this film the main character leaves everything he’s ever known and goes to experience a little bit of the world.  In the end he returns back to where he came from, his home.   This story resonates with me and is something I think about in my own life a lot.  I’m now in Provo doing my thing; but whenever I have a chance to return home for a little bit, I jump on it.  The Cider House Rules and my own experience helped inspire my choices for images.  I wanted to express the virtue of exploration and adventure.  I wanted to show them as great blessings.  However, in all this adventure, I want to make sure I stay true to my roots and can always return to my home. 

                For me, seeing my images was similar to the blind patients in Annie Dillard’s “Observing the Ordinary.” When I saw these created worlds, I didn’t see details, or depth, or any distinguishing factors. I saw “color-patches.” These color patches were how I interpreted the worlds I created in my images.  They make the worlds look simple, but fortunately, they don’t make them any less wonderful or new.   I hope my music mosaic can resonate through the music and the images what a great adventure it is to experience something new and colorful.  

Desire to Learn

“It’s not what you have, it’s what you don’t have that counts.” This is the most memorable and repeated line from Mr. Westing’s will in The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. The Westing heirs are given their clues; and then with the fraction of information they have, are asked to solve a mystery. Only one heir finds herself capable of this act. Turtle is the one able to uncover the truth because of two main reasons. First, she collects all the information possible that is available to her. Second, she has the strongest most pure desire to know the answer. Driven by the “death” of her friend Sandy, she wants to solve the mystery for his sake, as well to ease her own ache over losing him. Turtle’s success is meant to inspire in others the desire for knowledge. Raskin hopes we won’t just be content with learning what we have to learn, but that we will pursue knowledge because we desire to do so.

There are many educated adults who are players in Mr. Westing’s game. There’s a judge, a doctor, business owners, and more. So why is it that a child, the youngest player, is the one who is able to discover the truth? Raskin’s message is that the desire to learn is most easily planted, and most readily received, in children. Children ask questions because they are curious, and therefore are open to receiving the most answers.

It’s easy, in our time, to think this means we should use the wide array of resources available. Nowadays, any question we have can be answered from a search bar—Google! However, Raskin wrote this book during the 70s, before Internet searching existed. She wrote The Westing Game with a little bit more intent than to just “google” what we don’t know. From the knowledge that we as learners garner, we must creatively ask questions that maybe haven’t been thought of before. “It’s what we don’t have that counts.” This is a predecessor to innovation. If any era was removed from our history, we would be that much further behind in the understanding of our world than we are today. The culture and people of the 70s were a product of everything that had come before them, and we are a product of everything that has come before us, including the 70s. Now in our day, we must ask ourselves what we don’t have, and what can we do to fill that gap.

Raskin loved learning and did everything she could to help further the education of students. Twice Raskin made offers of her manuscripts to the CCBC (Cooperative Children’s Book Center) and was refused. On her third attempt, she made it very clear that she wanted her manuscripts to be used to educate students. Rather than her manuscripts being preserved but never used, she wished for them to fall apart from use. The CCBC accepted this third time. Since her book was written in the 70s, it was an actual physical copy of her original draft. On it, students could clearly see the author’s revisions, and the roles of the literary and copy editor. It was Raskin’s goal for whoever viewed her manuscripts to walk away with a better understanding of how the writing process worked.

Raskin didn’t just stop there with her books. She went all the way, by designing her book as a finished product. She designed the cover and title page of her books, as well as all the other pages. The entire process from start to finish was overseen by Raskin herself. Doing more than the bare minimum, she’s an example of the lesson being taught—to always do as much as you can and learn as much as you can.

Some might say that this interpretation of the text leads people to never be satisfied with what they have. Instead of people being grateful for what they have currently, humans always pursue more and more. I personally think that’s okay for growth. Contentment doesn’t necessarily bring happiness, maybe just more comfort. The reason I’m attending BYU is that I wanted to be challenged in ways this particular school offers. Moving to Provo threw challenges at me because I was away from my family, friends, and everything I found comfort in. These experiences have made me who I am this year, and might even change who I am next year. Because I desired the opportunity to gain additional knowledge, I’m now blessed enough to be studying film. I don’t think that would have happened if I had stayed at home or gone to a different university. I’m grateful for what I’ve been given, and will make the absolute best of it I possibly can.

Turtle’s experience is an example to all of us of the good knowledge can do us. Because she dared to ask the question and get an answer, she benefited from a life-long friendship that otherwise she would have been without. A desire to attain more is healthy and should be pursued—it can help others as well as yourself. If we find the questions to ask, the generations after ours will take what we have and be able to find out what we don’t have.