On Longing

"The body is the primary mode of perceiving scale." I always enjoyed hiking and painting, and I have attached two pictures which show these passions. This was a painting I made in high school where I illustrated how little we are compared to the world around us. When you're standing on top of a mountain, your problems do not seem so big in comparison to the vast world that we live in. We become little when seeing how small our bodies are.

"Capacity of objects to serve as traces of authentic experience." This was the water bottle I had when I participated in cross country in high school, and this photo illustrates the experiences of going to meets and pouring my heart out on the course. I had always struggled with breaking bones and stress fractures, and in this meet I was finally able to run and excel at something I loved to do. The simplicity of a water bottle speaks volumes to my experience as a cross country runner.

"The souvenir reduces the public, the monumental, and the three-dimensional into the miniature, that which can be enveloped by the body." I loved going on road trips with my friends in high school, and this specific picture was taken on a road trip to a summer conference in Tennessee. We would paint and draw and express ourselves in my sketchbook, and we would create souvenirs that I could look back on and remember the fun times we shared.

"Nostalgia can not be sustained without loss." I chose two pictures to illustrate nostalgia and loss. The guinea pig pictured, Daisy, was a unique member of our family, and my brothers and I would love to play around with her. She passed away during my senior year of high school, and we all look back on pictures and videos of her and remember her playful energy. I also included a picture of my mom and I because I like far away from home now, and I always get nostalgic thinking about living in Connecticut and having my mom there for me all the time. Now she is just a phone call away, but I have lost the luxury of physically being with her every day.

"The place of origin must remain unavailable in order for desire to be generated." After moving 1,000 miles away to attend Flagler College, I tend to think about my childhood home where I lived for the first 18 years of my life. My dad would always go all out with the Christmas lights, and this picture beautifully illustrates our home in the wintertime. Because I am so far away from home, I have generated a love and desire to go back and experience the place that I am constantly missing.