Fear but with Dignity

 Hi ^_Ő/

On Tuesday we watched a 19 minute speech by Elizabeth Gilbert.  She’s internationally famous for her book, Eat Pray Love, or for others like me, for the film based on her book ^O^ LOL!!! She covered the topic of fear regarding the creative minds as to how we are not the only ones creating, but that we get the help from unknown sources.  Her talk is very interesting, and she approaches her audience in a very friendly, humoristic, and humble way.  I highly recommend for all you to watch it, so that you can get a better understanding of what I’m talking about ^_Ő—☞ Here’s the link: http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html.  Trust me, it doesn’t feel like 19 min’s at all as she talks fast but with a clear tone and entertaining body language.  I hope that all of you, or at least most of you, can reflect upon your FEAR that stops you from creating what you may think it’s a failure.

I mentioned in my first blog that I want to gain confidence in my new major as a Graphic Designer, and that’s because I’m AFRAID that I might not succeed in this field of study.  Remember that I was studying Animation first?  I’ve been changing majors since I was in community college, but I never spent as much time on just one major like I did with Animation.  I was afraid to let go because I had already reached far away… sort of like an engagement that it’s broken before marriage, and then starting a new relationship with another man… similar situation ‘^,~\  Starting all over again is refreshing but also intimidating…  it’s like I’m swimming and I don’t know what’s underneath the salted water, seahorses \^O^/ Awww!!! Or jellyfish /^O^\ Oooh oh!!!  However, I’m following my instincts, which I believe, is helping me overcome my fear towards my creative career choices.  My instincts, I believe, are those unknown sources that Elizabeth talks about, where our ideas come from and we “do our part of the job,” as she encourage us towards the end of her speech.  I came up with this motto: fear but with dignity… that although I’m afraid not to succeed, at least I tried with dignity to release my creativity.  I kept changing majors because I wasn’t being honest with myself.  I restrained my instincts when they were doing their part of the job.  Until, I imagined having only one year to live… I knew instantly that I’d be spending my time releasing all of my creative works as much as possible before running out of time.  Therefore, I joined the Arts because that’s where my instincts led me after setting them free.  Little by little I’m becoming true to myself… like I’m finally seeing what’s inside the mirror that’s in front of me, and it’s a blurry me.  Also, I’m grateful for this class and for Elizabeth’s words because they’re like a pair of hands that are helping me get up  \^_~/ to continue overcoming my fear towards my creative career choices. 

After watching the video, the entire class discussed as a group what we thought about it.  Almost all of us enjoyed it and were able to relate to her in that we also fear failure.  She also made us think that we’re not crazy, as one of my classmate’s pointed out, when Elizabeth talked about the unknown sources.  Have you ever asked yourself; I don’t know how I got this idea, where did it come from?  Nonetheless is a mystery, which some may believe it comes from a divine source, others about their belief of a previous life, etc…  That’s why many of us liked when Elizabeth mentioned that we’re only human, because she explained that it’s too much responsibility for a mere human vessel to contain, similar to being asked to swallow the sun all alone.  Her speech motivated most us because now we know that there are more creative people out there feeling and thinking the same way, but they’re brave enough to continue with their ‘part of their job.’  Also, the majority of us liked that she gave her presentation in a very humble and colorful way.  She kept using hand gestures that helped her express even more while talking.  Well, there was a student who thought she exaggerated at moments with her voice that it seemed like she was gasping.  Another student jumped to the defense by stating that Elizabeth is a creative person, a writer, and that creative people tend to exaggerate more to make normal people feel what the creative person is feeling.  I took a mental note… I didn’t know that ^_^’  Nevertheless, many of us took the opportunity of seeing the video to help us reflect upon our own fears towards our creative process… I did ^_Ő

It was an interesting morning and after our discussion we had a fun activity.  We were divided into four groups to make a visual story with our pictures from a homework assignment.  Each of us had five pictures, some took their own and others (like me) got them from magazines.  The purpose was for each group to combine all of their images to create a visual story between 3-6 images only.  After we all finished choosing our images, we pinned them on the board.  Then we looked at them and voted for the one that we thought was the best.  My group used five images.  It started with a director with his camera, the second being a model laying on a box of cigarettes as if she were at the beach, the third was an Euro bill, the fourth a goblet of wine (I think margarita?) breaking, and the fifth a young woman with her eyes rolled up (showing only the sclera/white area of the eye), her mouth open, hair all frizzy, and with a black David-star tattoo on her forehead.  Our visual story was about an actress, reason for having the director at first to indicate that she’s being on a film.  She’s a success and that’s what the euro bill symbolizes, but she becomes broke as her fame decays, and that’s represented by the broken goblet, and the last image ends the story with her reaction being all freaky… but with a lot of humor \^O^/ Ahaahahahah!!!!!  Although it was hilarious, I didn’t vote for my group.  I voted for another group who used five images as well.  Their first image was about an old man riding a bicycle, the second was entirely about curvy dirt roads, the third about an elegant building (shiny metal or glass?), the fourth a church/cathedral, and the fifth a shirtless young man lifting a bicycle.  My group got eight votes, so did another, the group that only had three images didn’t get votes, and the group that I voted for got nine.  Since it was the group that won for being the ‘best,’ Prof. Jimmy asked one of my classmates about it, but he was from the same group.  Then he asked me if I was in that group too, and since I wasn’t he asked me to narrate the visual story.  I said that I saw a very tired old man riding a bicycle with a long road ahead of him to reach the point of his location (which was the elegant building), and as he finally reaches it he prays (symbolized by the church), and as he’s relieved he feels young and that’s represented by the young man lifting his bicycle.  The members of that group had another concept though, but Prof. Jimmy defended my story because of the evidence and representation of each image.  For instance, the last image had a younger man lifting a bicycle, that’s visual evidence, and the church symbolizes when people pray as they ask for divine help, like miracles.  What made me vote for this story instantly was the facial expression of the old man, who looked very tired and he still had to push himself to pedal his bicycle (it was very emotional), and then I made the connection with the young man who is full of energy while lifting his bicycle.  I think that this group could’ve still won with only three images: the old man, the long road, and the young man… I think this way because I was able to understand the story just by seeing their first and last image to make the connection between the old man and the young man as they both have bicycles and their facial expressions were the opposite; negative for the old man and positive for the younger one.  I had fun with this activity =D    

It was a great class, starting with an inspirational speech by Elizabeth and concluding it with four different visual stories... ^_~/ Until next time!

        

Golden Adjectives:

1.     Scary: A frightful emotion that a person feels when startled.  Fear of the unknown.  Uneasiness to approach a new area.           

2.     Honest: True to oneself and others.  Positive intentions.  Straightforward with actions and opinions. 

3.     Glorious: Divine accomplishment.  Superior in ranks, as in hierarchy.  Brave.