My first class in college was in 2019 at 8 a.m. on a Monday. I had drawing one with a talked-about professor. The comments were mixed about her, some good and some bad, but one thing that everyone seemed to agree on was that she pushed buttons. What I found out was true. Push buttons she did; it felt like she slammed on every single one I had with me when I walked into class. She taught us a lot, me especially, but one thing she told me that would stick with me forever was, “If you can’t draw a straight line without a ruler, you won’t make it anywhere in the art world.” Something about that simple little sentence at 8 a.m. sat with me for the next 5 years and fueled my spite to continue the arts and prove I could do something with it. It might not necessarily end with drawing, but it will be art-related. With that thought, I consider myself creative. I create things that make me happy. I create things that I want to share with other people. I create things in the hopes of getting different reactions out of my work and seeing what the general opinion of it all is. I create things in the hope of finding out what my art style is. I will be creative until I find that style and consider myself an artist in that work. I decided to create a series titled “What’s in Your Pockets?" Nobody ever questions what someone is carrying with them every day. Why does it matter what a stranger has in their pockets? It doesn’t. But it could explain a lot about the person and their life without ever having a deep conversation. In this series, I wanted to challenge myself and be the one to start a conversation first. Something that would catch people off guard. I wanted to test people and see how they would react if I approached everyone differently to ask the same question. How would someone's answer change if I showed what was in my pockets first? Would they shoo me away if they saw I had a camera before I spoke? What if they never knew I took photos and wanted to know what was in their pockets? How would these things change what they showed me and how they decided to present the things to me? I wanted to create a series for people who are observant of others and question how humans live their day-to-day lives.
