I think art has always been innate; I just did not know until I grew up that I had a visual way of communicating. Art is like having one of the power rangers morphers that transforms me into something else; I can be anything, do anything, and see anything. I always feel like I am trying to solve a puzzle around me; I try to figure out the mystery of social interactions, why the world is the way it is, why we are born, why we live and what the meaning of life is in a deeper sense. Currently in my teenage years, I am focusing on discovering myself through my beliefs, memories, experiences and imaginations. I would like my works to be relatable to people and open their eyes, minds, and hearts.
Most of my art comes from the heart; a cheesy way to explain it, but it is true. I do not get influences from other artists, but instead, from social, political, environmental issues around the world, but mainly from life in general. I began to question everything in my life and ask myself why everything was the way it was. Through questions like that, the ideas came. When they do, a little voice whispers an idea in my head and then I suddenly see a finished product of an art piece. Sometimes, I can clearly see what medium I would use and the outcome. Therefore, I would say I am very comfortable with any medium. I like to experiment with different mediums every time and even though there might be mistakes, they are never negatives because new form of expressions might emerge from that.
One of the reasons why I know I am a strong candidate for SAIC is I am a free person. SAIC seems to be one of the places that give freedom to the students; allowing them to study different subjects and find ways to merge it with art to create a new idea. Similarly, my goal is to freely explore those kinds of methods to create something new and special. Living in a very conservative household aids in my passion for free exploration and expression. I was not allowed to fully express who I am and I have bottled up a lot of the emotions and anger for many years and art is one of the ways I feel free. Now as I have grown older, I have begun to visit my past and have "drinks" from those bottles. Through those drinks, I have learned a lot of about myself, but found many fragments that needed to be pieced together. Therefore, that is why I am a free person, I am not afraid to dig into my past, feel, fix myself and show my personal side through my art to create something new and special.
One of the pieces in my life that I value the most is a local TED group called TEDxYouthSeoul. TEDxYouthSeoul was founded by my friend during our sophomore year. It's a group that mainly focuses on the youth of Seoul and the ideas and stories they can share with the Seoul community. When it first started out as a school club, I was just another member in the design team. However, after our second event, my friend asked me to be head of design for the group the following year. Although it may seem like nothing, but that moment opened a special opportunity for me. I used to be a very shy student and I did not participate in a lot of school activities. I was unconfident and afraid of judgement. However, getting this role in my community really gave me a confidence boost and helped me feel like I fit into the community in my new life back in Korea.
As I dive further into the start of my life, I plan to keep solving puzzles, keep drinking from my bottles, and piece together my life and discover the world around me. I honestly do not know what I will be doing in 10 years from now because life is so ambiguous and to say that I know would be lying. However, I hope getting accepted into SAIC will give me a better understanding of my future and will help be the glue where I piece together the rest of the puzzles and fragments of myself.
Hello kev533,
This is a well-written essay! It is clear and logical and it showed who you are as an individual. You did pretty well in presenting specific examples instead of telling plainly.
There is one little problem that I think you could improve on.
Although it may seem like nothing, but that moment opened a special opportunity for me. I used to be a very shy student and I did not participate in a lot of school activities. I was unconfident and afraid of judgement. However, getting this role in my community really gave me a confidence boost and helped me feel like I fit into the community in my new life back in Korea.
Maybe you downplayed too much. Try using one sentence describing that you were shy, and writing more about how you did well in this position and how this role gave you a confidence boost and helped you.
Good luck to you!
[P.S. Can you give me some suggestion on my essays? I need help in my second essay "Tell us what you have read and thought about". I'll really appreciate your time!]
I like your essay it shows passion. However if you could vividly express where you drew something by experiencing that sort of vision you get (from the first paragraph) it would be better. The second paragraph sounded a bit awkward to me in the sentence
"I was not allowed to fully express who I am and I have bottled up a lot of the emotions and anger for many years and art is one of the ways I feel free."
connect it with the previous sentence so, " Therefore never being able to show who I really was gave me intense emotions of anger and what helped me through it was art. Art is my freedom!"
(You don't have to use this just give you an example)
