My 3 pieces of art.
#1 Paper Towns
My first piece of art is a book called Paper Towns, I found myself immediately entranced in Margo and Q’s lives and was able to relate to the both of them. The book is about high school student Quentin Jacobsen (‘Q’) who has spent a lifetime loving the mysterious and adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. One night she sneaks in through in his bedroom window and climbs into his life beckoning him to follow her on her adventures. Margo disappears for a while, but left clues that Q realizes are for him. The more he finds out about her and the closer he gets to finding her, the farther away from her feels.
I believe this piece impacted me because I was able to relate to Margo, wanting to escape her boring life, and finding comfort in abandoned things. Many teenagers feel like they aren”t a part of something, or like Margo view themselves as loners, having to pretend they’re someone else for others to even like them. I found it to be a very deep book for such young readers to experience. Overall it was an excellent book, and made me feel connected to the character, less outcasted and alone, that was the biggest impact it had on me.
#2 Before Sunrise
My second piece of art is the first of three ‘Before’ movie series starring Ethan Hawk and Julie Delpy. It is about a young American man, and a young French woman who meet on a train, and get off together in Vienna where they spend the night walking around the city and getting to know each other. They describe how they feel about love and life and open up to each more than they normally would because they believe that they will never see each other again after that night.
This movie had an impact on me because it was very realistic. The conversations, their awkward interactions, their small arguments, everything was very real. Usually when you watch a romance movie everything is played up and very unrealistic, granted, it normally has to be for people to want to watch it and actually enjoy it. But Before Sunrise has a way of keeping you so engaged in their conversations because you relate to them. I remember the first time I watched it I felt like I was watching myself talking to someone I had dated in the past when we first met. We had had almost some of the exact same conversations and especially arguments that the two actors had throughout all three movies.
Another reason this series as a whole is brilliant is that the same two characters were used over a twelve year span, so not only were they twelve years older in the movie, they were actually twelve years older in real life.
#3 Michicant
My third piece of art is a song by Bon Iver called Michicant. The background music on its own is moving even without the brilliant lyrics, it makes you feel something. I think you can interpret this song however you want, I’ve heard it explained many different ways. But for me this song about the first time you fall in love or make love, how fast it happens and how bitter sweet it leaves you. It reminds me of the innocence of young love, and how people never really take it seriously at first(including yourself) because you’re to young to be with the person you’re going to spend of the rest of your life with, right? But then you’re 21 and thinking maybe he was it, since nothing else has ever lived up to it, and you wonder if anything ever will.
For me this song is nostalgia, and makes me feel like I can be myself somehow.
Conclusions:
I guess I like art that reminds me of myself, reminds me it’s okay to be myself, and art that makes me feel something. All of these pieces to me have a nostalgic sadness in them, I think I’m still trying to figure out why that makes me like them. Maybe I miss the person I was before, or people who were in my life before? I’ve always preferred darker things, things that make your skin crawl, even things that make you feel sick to your stomach; over all the light, happy fluff. Not because I’m generally a sad person or anything but I think because it makes me feel something deep. Deeper than happiness has ever made me feel. I think I just want to feel something, anything.