Personal Statement Part 2 by Kyle Trehern

Identity

kyletrehern — 2024-03-29 02:13:44 UTC

A lot of my journey this semester has been personal. I have really been focusing and working on improving myself artistically, physically, and emotionally. In my original statement I mentioned my identity as an artist is important to me, and I think that I really broke through creatively in the design portion of PCP. Specifically when we did the Altar piece. My piece centered a lot about my experience with loneliness and what it means to me. My submission for this was a painting I did with a blank canvas and thick acrylic paints that I used to convey how my inward understanding of loneliness affects my Art. Through this project I really found that the way in which I experience loneliness is a huge part of my identity, and how it has changed what I like, how I interact with people, and why I express myself the way I do. This project really helped me come to terms with my identity as an artist.

Community

kyletrehern — 2024-03-29 02:20:27 UTC

I really found myself formulating and connecting more deeply with the community in the department this semester. I think that partly this has to do with more exposure to my peers which is bound to make forming connections easier. But I also contribute this class partly to it as well both directly and indirectly. In the devising section of PCP we did an activity as a group over the course of the section where we wrote down what hope means and looks like to us. It was a really powerful moment to see everyone's individual takes on hopefulness, and I think it brought all of us closer together as collaborators, peers, and friends. I'm not sure how conscious of an affect it had because I wasn't entirely aware of it until just the other day, but I do think that it was a transformative part of our growth as a community. So much of what I do and why I do it is for the betterment of my community, family, and friends, so I find that these moments of growth amongst them are especially impactful.

Collaboration

kyletrehern — 2024-03-29 02:27:48 UTC

In a similar vain to my entry on community, I find I have grown as a collaborator in the past couple of months. It is one thing to say I have friends in the community, but it is another to say that I collaborate well with them. I find that the lack of consistency among groups, even within our own cohorts, has lead to my betterment as a collaborator. Most importantly is the final project we are working on. This is a large project, and seems daunting, but effectively being able to collaborate with my partners is making the project so much easier. It is also nice being forced to work with them outside of the classroom. This sort of challenge is really good at rooting out and identifying how well you work with people, and so far I have had no negative experiences with any of my collaborators across any of our projects. I think that our work as artists is so dependent on if we are able to collaborate effectively with other people, and this class has been great at making us become better with working with and around others, and has been monumental in helping the community mature as collaborators.