Cats versus Dogs

Cats and dogs are both living organisms in a biodiverse world. They both have tails and coloful vulnerable eyes and can also make a mess if they are not home trained. I like to think of cats and dogs compared to girls and boys. The girls are like cats that have a complicated and sometimes deceptive way to getting most of the things they wanted without necessarily getting rough on anyone. Girls, like cats, have a feminine touch gracefully walking to sometimes show off their dress. Boys are like dogs that love to play around and sometimes get down and dirty. They can behave but sometimes they can't wait too long, or else they start messing around causing trouble. That is how I compare and contrast cats and dogs. Cats and dogs are pretty much the human version of a little girl and little boy.

Autobiographical Narrative- Artist Statement

An Independent Mind Creates an Experimental Vision

A simple and independent mind does not toil at the bidding of any prince.

-Walden, by Henry David Thoreau (p45)

What would happen if I only answered people in a form of a question? For one weekend I answered my peers with a question instead of a declarative statement. My peers had thought that I was having a mental breakdown or trying to be sarcastic and started asking me questions about what I was doing. Throughout the whole day my peers got very frustrated and irritated because I wouldn’t give a clear answer. Two of them didn’t talk to me for the rest of the day. Whether we realize it or not, everyone depends on another person to give an exact answer to his or her question. Is it possible that we depend on the same person too much?

This was an experiment I created to test the type of person I was. I was always the “yes” person that everyone went to for “help” or “advice”. I was afraid to say no to other people because I felt that I would disappoint the person in not fulfilling his or her task. Although, there were many tasks I didn’t have to do, I knew I was being taken advantage of. In school, I was one of the high achievers always prepared for class. In church, I portrayed the artistic talent. I felt frustrated and got stressed out because I booked myself up with a lot of work and didn’t have the guts to stand up for myself. Sometimes, I felt a little depressed and would push myself away from everyone.

After the experiment, I looked at myself through an invisible mirror. I saw how confident I felt; I became a renewed individual. This new person turned my artistic vision into a different direction. I know that I am now a young independent individual that doesn’t have to serve anyone’s unreasonable request. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a person of “higher class” or the most popular; anyone can take advantage of you. I have a mind of my own and no one can take that away from me.

Observation is a human being’s sixth sense. My sight, taste, touch, sense of smell, and ability to hear are the basic senses needed for someone like myself to be aware of the environment that surrounds me. When I was younger, I would notice every speck of detail of the things around me that other people cannot even see. I remember going outside in my backyard to just be around the fresh air.

I would lie across the grass to look at the white fluffy clouds in the sky and sit on the concrete porch to look at the huge forest green tree that always linked against my wired fence and my neighbor’s house across the back of my house. I saw clouds that formed into a train, a loaf of bread, bubbles, flowers, a dog stretching its back, and even a human eye. In the tree, I saw formations of pencils, bow ties, a smiley face, an anchor, a megaphone, and so much more. No matter where I am, I find the most unique details that really catch my eye.

With the influence of my life as of now, I have observed a pattern in my art style. My art style consists of colors, lines, and movement. My mother often tells me that I have an eye for color. I would coordinate colors together that I felt had the best combination for a certain shape or space. I consider that colors express the personality of a person or a specific drawing or picture. Without colors, life wouldn’t really exist. As my artwork progresses, I notice how focused I am with the line quality. I was never concerned about blending lines to create a form of something, but “line” is the root of creating almost anything. Whether I am drawing, coloring, or making some type of sculpture, lines help to create a series of different forms of art. Just like colors, lines can show a form of expression. Even the thickness and pressure of the line can reveal how the person felt at that particular time when creating the art piece. Whenever I sketch an idea, I always start with a circle. I never understood why I start drawing with a simple circle, but I realize that circles, for me, represent movement. Every time I think up an idea, my imagination is usually associated with movement. This is how I became interested in animation and the everyday motions of the plants, people, animals, and other life forms.  Art is a form of my expression and a language that I want to use to reveal the potential I have within myself.

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”

-Henry David Thoreau

Raw versus Cooked Foods

from http://www.vegsource.com/harris/raw_vs_cooked.htm

"Raw food enthusiasts have always been a part of the vegetarian/vegan scene. Their core idea is that enzymes are still active in raw food whereas they're denatured, hence inactive, in cooked food. No contest. Next question: So what? The theory is that all food should be eaten raw to avoid the destruction of the enzymes in the food itself which are held to be essential to proper digestion. One afficionado has stated that 'enzymes present in raw foods take priority over secreted (digestive) enzymes.'

Cooking is a form of predigestion in which heat is used to hydrolyze nutrients which would otherwise be hydrolyzed at body temperature by digestive enzymes. The end result is the same, but one raw food author seems to obliquely suggest that another reason for leaving food enzymes intact is so they can be absorbed intact into the blood stream to continue their digestive work there. Such a process would be catastrophic as the absorbed enzymes would be peptide fragments and would be more likely to generate allergic and autoimmune reactions than robust good health."

Spicy Foods versus Sweet Foods

Spicy foods and sweet foods are just about the same. They're both foods, but one is spicy and the other one sweet. Spicy foods have different spicy levels that you can choose from. For example, in salsa, they have mild, medium, and hot taste levels to satisfy the needs of the customer. The only caution to spicy foods is that, if not careful, you can burn your mouth into scabs or, if super hot, can lead to some type of heart burn. With sweet foods, you have really only one type of sweetness. Sweetnesses vary from different food products but once something is sweet, it's always sweet. Although, sometimes a certain food can be too sweet for one person and just right for the other person. Again, it depends on everyone's taste buds. Some sweet foods are combined with a sour taste, such as the sweet and sour sauce for an eggroll. In any way, spicy foods and sweet foods are just about the same, yet it depends on the person's particular choice of foods.

Weather

How does weather affect my mood? It depends on the temperature of a particular day. In a typical Southern California day, the weather outside seems gloomy, cold, and slightly breezy. I would still feel a little bit sleepy and tired and possibly grumpy if I didn't get enough sleep. Then in the middle of the day, the weather clears into a bright and sunny day (some days much brighter than others) and then I feel rejuvenated. I smile into the sky and know that it is going to be a good day. Here's the difference between cold and hot weather. In cold weather, my body is covered with my bed sheets and because it is so cold in the atmosphere, I trap myself in my bed until it is warm. Yet, the cold weather helps me breathe a lot better and exercise with such ease. In hot weather, I feel like I am baking under the sun and am about to whither in the heat. In hot weather I cannot concentrate on the important things I have to do because IT'S TOOOO HOTT!!! When it is too hot, I automatically fall asleep. As I sometimes say: Heat can be torture.

Compare and Contrast Public vs. Homeschooling

Public schools and home schools have a distinct difference between themselves. Public schools is well...public. You are learning--or supposedly learning--with other students that is taught by one or multiple teachers. Home schooling is of course, learning at your house. The student is on a one-on-one basis with the teacher, although sadly the student lacks a social life. I remember hanging out with a girl who was home-schooled; she was excited about almost every place we went and the things I have ever done with friends and other people. I thought to myself, "Poor child, she needs to be around people of her own age."

--to be continued--

Compare and Contrast Understanding and Knowledge

What is understanding? What is knowledge? Well, the point of understanding something is to be able to comprehend the subject of that matter. If you don't understand the subject, then you just know the subject without the attempt of understanding. It's common sense my dear. Believe it or not, everyone has knowledge and anyone can put words together to make something sound sensible to the human ear. Yet, people use the knowledge they obtain and misinterpret the meaning of what is supposed to be correctly understood. If you have knowledge, it is more of choice for you to understand the material or not. It's simple. I can listen to the teacher all day with the knowledge he or she gives me, but I can choose to not store the new information in my brain. The difference between knowledge and understanding can seem complex, but they are not. If you can comprehend what you are reading, then you have obtained the knowledge in your head and you rightfully chose to understand its true meaning.