Fireside Chat

ARTIST STATEMENT:

I was a little apprehensive about the Fireside chat at first. I thought it would go super long and I would be super tired and not want to be there. I had an absolute blast. It was such an enriching experience to get to see all of my classmates perform and get to see what they had created and what they came up with. It was fun and entertaining and I was completely wrong about what I though the experience was going to be.

When deciding what I wanted to do for the fireside chat the only things I was sure of for a long time is that I wanted to play a vinyl. Vinyl records mean so much to me and a lot of the ones I own are sentimental in multiple ways. I love vinyls because they are all about connection and tangibility and then have scratches and static but you forgive them for those small imperfections because you love them. This was the fundamental belief that I wanted to communicate; the belief that you have to be able to give and receive love past imperfections and mistakes. That is when I knew that I had to tell the story of my brother , my family, and I. I wasn’t trying to be like “oh look how righteous I am”, it wasn’t about that at all. It was just the biggest moment in my life where I can look back and see where that belief formulated and the gratitude I have for that belief now.  I decided to play the Jackson 5 record with the song I’ll be there because that best demonstrated the love that my brother did/does have for me and how he just made one little mistake. I wore the overalls and the hat because that is how I dressed when I was 12 and wanted people to be able to look at me as a little kid and be able to tell that I was relating a story that was from my own past and better be able to empathize and see what occurred through the eyes of a child.

I was super nervous at sharing something so personal for fear of judgment, but that was the best part about eh fireside chat was that we all just have this love and understanding for one another and really open up.  Like I said before, it was great to get to watch everyone and I feel a lot closer to the class (yeah yeah that’s pretty corny) because people were being so open and just going for it I think that allowed those that followed to be more comfortable and to express the real them a little more in their performance.