- Looking back at the “bones of summer” how have you engaged or created art? If you haven’t engaged or created art, please describe why.
Due to the intense mental exhaustion 2020 had brought me, I engaged with art in a new way this summer. n In the years I have considered myself artistic, I have been an artist of production. Whether I was painting a piece for my wall or writing songs for my band, my art always had a purpose and a consumer to please.  It was very hard for me to do anything this summer, creating meaningful art was off the table for me.  I realized I needed to put myself back in the creative realm somehow. I had always focused on producing something for others to observe that I hadn’t done much observing, myself. I dove into Youtube this summer. It actually started with cooking videos, a man in his kitchen creating dishes he had never heard of. Then podcasts of various serial killer’s childhoods. Eventually, behind the scenes videos of the creative processes of albums and books. I was completely infatuated. I always made sure to leave words of thanks to the artists in the comments, letting them know how much it meant to me that through their work I was able to engage in the creative world I missed so much on a days that I couldn’t even get out of bed. This is one of the few beautiful things that this wreck of a year has brought me.
- What things, if any, surround you that you consider powerful?I have been less so surrounded by, and more so overwhelmed by the idea of freedom lately. As an eighteen year old I’m often asked what I’m going to do with my life (by the way it is absurd that the most common time to be asked this is as a teenager) but it makes me really think. What am I gonna do with my life? Then I get an instant headache because the reality to that question is I could do anything. I have the freedom to do anything. If I decide I want to be a surgeon I could whip up an application, apply for student loans and start school next September. Or if I decide that I am a cinematic genius and my destiny is to live out my days in Venice as a part time script writer part time cafe owner – I could. I find myself not knowing what to do with this freedom. Life is a concept that I hope scares me less and less as I live through it. My passions tell me to shoot for the stars but my practicality tells me to set myself up financially. My brain tells me to find a happy mix so I’m not depressed with my life at 50. My anxiety tells me that’s not possible. In regard to session one, I find that this idea of freedom doesn’t inform me but it perplexes me. It invokes thought that I find very intimidating, and I do believe that effects my art. I look at songs as an outlet for controlled freedom. The concept applied to a three minute song of manageable melodies and chords is much less daunting than when it is applied to my life. So I like to think that this encourages me to write music with the thought that there is limitless avenues that my music could explore and endless opportunities to go somewhere unexpected.
- Over the next couple of days, take note of the dominant sounds in areas that you consistently walk. What are the sounds you notice most of all? Be specific.It seems as though my neighbourhood is at the cross roads where beauty and destruction intertwine. The creek behind my house brings the most serine serenade of frogs and crickets chirping and croaking me to sleep. The giant trees surrounding whistle as they sway in the wind and plop pinecones on my roof in an unsolvable rhythm. I nod off every night to the sounds of nature as if humanity had never tainted it. Waking up is another story. I happen to live in the dead centre of an outdoor shooting range and a developing neighbourhood. My dog jumps at the sounds of blasting from the construction site and I hear my mom consistently explaining to her co workers on zoom why they are hearing so many gunshots on her end. Though I don’t enjoy the connotations of guns and blasting and the inevitable thoughts of war it brings, I do find the sounds to be dimensional. The blasting echoes in a way I’ve never heard before. The way it shakes my house gives the sound a whole new power. After a while the guns at the range mimic the sounds of a clave playing at its own chaotic tempo. Sounds can only be as disruptive as we let them be.((Please note that I tried to put going on a walk into my day leading up to doing this assignment and it’s just not something I enjoy so I did noises that I experience from my bedroom))
- How do you relate to the phrase “free time only works if you steal it?”As someone who stresses over my schedule like a crazy person, this phrase struck a chord with me. It reminds me of a time where I would try to fit songwriting into a time slot of my day and the result was painful. It goes to show that you can not schedule creativity, you just have to leave yourself the room to be inspired and act on it when it feels right. It also reminds me of times that I have way over booked myself (ie. five classes and thirty hours of work in a week) and still expected to be producing music at a steady rate. As Leslie said, you can’t add time to your life. You can only steal it from different places, and lesser priorities. I consider free time to be the moments between the stress inducing activities that seem to control my life. It doesn’t tend to be planned, it just happens when I get a moment to breathe and put down my work, or I get motivation to have a hot bath out of the blue. I find myself having my most meaningful inner monologues in these moments and I try my best to not take them for granted, or cram them into my schedule as I used to.
- Do you have any other takeaways from the film?The energy and presence of Leslie Laskey through this film presented and reinforced many times the blessing and importance of enjoying your work. I think he is so inspiring because it is easy to see how fulfilled he is by his work, and that is something people strive for even more than success from their work. Finding joy in something you’ve done most of your life well into your nineties is something worth adoration. This made me consider some perplexing and daunting questions, does this passion exist for me? Have I met this passion yet? Is it ridiculous to strive for fulfillment to the extent that another person has reached? I find it a strange thing to wish for something that another person has, so I seldom do, but Laskey truly gives the vibe that he has cracked the code. He has kept himself busy, happy and inspired into his old age and it inspires me to never stop until I find passion and purpose that captivating.
