overwhelmed by media and news
I am asking myself the same questions many in adolescence ask ourselves: "Who am I? How did I become this way? How can I push myself to be better?" People my age are inundated with media and news which seem never ending. There is always a story to read, a post to like, and another big and bad headline, and amongst all of this is where my generation is growing and trying to find our niche. It is where I learn about politics, societal standards, morals (or lack thereof), sexuality, pop culture, and amongst all of this, myself. In this chaos, I question the society around me while simultaneously looking introspectively, and I ask: "Who makes the rules? How did it become this way? Is there anything I can do to change things?"
I look at the people that I've learned most from. My mother, which found the courage to leave a relationship she was not content in. A woman who had to raise me in a country that was not her own while working retail during the day and selling her jewelry designs in the night. Making every dollar count and watching me eat the meal she could not have because it could only feed one growing girl. Thanks to her I know how to dedicate myself, work hard and strive for something better. Yet, I also look at my mother and question, why she was taught that a woman's husband is her "cross", her weight to carry, no matter how much of a burden it might become. I see her devotion to her beauty and the upkeep of it, and how terrified she is of wrinkles that lace her skin. I see how she has not received a single pay raise in the past five years despite taking on the workload of three people. I see, a flaw in the way women are treated in our society.
My generation grows with a constant overstimulation of information, we exhaust one source just to turn to another, if not from a phone it's from a TV, a friend, a laptop, a teacher, a parent. Reflection and meditation are scarce. We are always bombarded by new media, and its influence can be felt in our behaviors and viewpoints. My generation must now sift through the taught ideals and explanations and form our own positions.
And I find I do this best when I have a blank page staring back at me. With my art I have a moment to consider the society I am in, the events that take place in it, and the ideals and constructs that stand behind it. I think of the way my mother was taught her place in society and think of the women of the United States and the treatment towards them when they come forward about experiences of sexual harassment and assault. I think of my Cuban-Ukrainian-American upbringing, its impact on myself, and I think of the current treatment towards immigrants and their cultures in the united states. My thoughts trickle down onto my pieces, pieces which now have my views and intentions as their message, a message which is back out there and forms part of the movement of ideas and information.
