My life on earth
Artist Statement
Chloe Sturm
How do we decide to customize our avatar? For many it's the fabric that decorates us, the way we curl, cut, style and color our hair, or the decision to embellish our skin with piercings or tattoos. For me, it’s been all of it. I’ve found ways to connect my physical body to the character and spirit that dwells within using fashion, art and forms of literature. Using the experiences, people, and places to inspire and influence my outward appearance has felt harmonious. To define my philosophy I must use them to simulate the feelings and muses that compose my life meaning. For my dress I used images from my life that were defining moments for me, and sun printed them using cyanotype printing. The dye gets exposed to sun and develops into the fabric leaving behind the royal blue color. Areas that are blocked by shadows will remain white, or whatever the original color of the fabric. I also included poetry that was written when I was 14. This poem emulates the feelings that I recognized when asked to summarize my life philosophy.
10054 freckles
i catch your tiny freckles slipping off your face.
fading into peachy winter skin.
they can’t keep up with the way you run, laugh,cry.
she smiles in the still of the rain, but when everything falls again
her laugh gets caught up in the pieces of the storm.
shiny lips and fingertips,
swimming along the whispers of her sisters and brothers,
catching prayers in the highlights of her hair.
Chloe Sturm
How do we decide to customize our avatar? For many it's the fabric that decorates us, the way we curl, cut, style and color our hair, or the decision to embellish our skin with piercings or tattoos. For me, it’s been all of it. I’ve found ways to connect my physical body to the character and spirit that dwells within using fashion, art and forms of literature. Using the experiences, people, and places to inspire and influence my outward appearance has felt harmonious. To define my philosophy I must use them to simulate the feelings and muses that compose my life meaning. For my dress I used images from my life that were defining moments for me, and sun printed them using cyanotype printing. The dye gets exposed to sun and develops into the fabric leaving behind the royal blue color. Areas that are blocked by shadows will remain white, or whatever the original color of the fabric. I also included poetry that was written when I was 14. This poem emulates the feelings that I recognized when asked to summarize my life philosophy.
10054 freckles
i catch your tiny freckles slipping off your face.
fading into peachy winter skin.
they can’t keep up with the way you run, laugh,cry.
she smiles in the still of the rain, but when everything falls again
her laugh gets caught up in the pieces of the storm.
shiny lips and fingertips,
swimming along the whispers of her sisters and brothers,
catching prayers in the highlights of her hair.
Paragraph 1: Project Description
Describe the project itself and the direction you personally took it. Which essential question(s) was your project seeking to answer? What was the inspiration behind the direction you took and the perspective you developed?
For the My Life on Earth Project we were asked to define our life philosophy and life meaning using any medium. Such as, video, written work, poetry, food art or performance. Each student made their own version of this project and presented it at all school exhibitions. For me, I decided to make some sort of clothing. My final product was a dress that was sewn by me and dyed by me. I dyed it using sun printing methods called cyanotype. I was inspired to use cyanotype because while i was in Denver for my internship, I saw some cyanotype dye and bought it. I also used images from my life that felt inspiring to me and were life defining moments.
Paragraph 2: New Insights
Please explain what new insights you developed over the course of this project either about yourself, life, the human place in the world/universe? How has your thinking been influenced by our study of philosophy and “meaning”? (Feel free to mine your journal and personal philosophy statement for material!)
After spending the last couple months dissecting philosophy, my outlook on life has changed. I’ve spent more time thinking about how my actions are affecting others more than I was before. I’m definitely more grateful for experiences and people than how I was before. Studying philosophy has been really eye opening for me. I feel a lot more in touch with the moment now after spending more thought about where I am and what I’m doing at that moment.
Paragraph 3: Further Questions and Intellectual Work Left to Do
Where do your intellectual quandaries go from here? What do you wonder about now that you may not have before? What questions do you still need to answer for yourself. If you like, include a list of roughly 4-6 questions this project sparked for you about yourself, life, or the human place in the world/universe.
Describe the project itself and the direction you personally took it. Which essential question(s) was your project seeking to answer? What was the inspiration behind the direction you took and the perspective you developed?
For the My Life on Earth Project we were asked to define our life philosophy and life meaning using any medium. Such as, video, written work, poetry, food art or performance. Each student made their own version of this project and presented it at all school exhibitions. For me, I decided to make some sort of clothing. My final product was a dress that was sewn by me and dyed by me. I dyed it using sun printing methods called cyanotype. I was inspired to use cyanotype because while i was in Denver for my internship, I saw some cyanotype dye and bought it. I also used images from my life that felt inspiring to me and were life defining moments.
Paragraph 2: New Insights
Please explain what new insights you developed over the course of this project either about yourself, life, the human place in the world/universe? How has your thinking been influenced by our study of philosophy and “meaning”? (Feel free to mine your journal and personal philosophy statement for material!)
After spending the last couple months dissecting philosophy, my outlook on life has changed. I’ve spent more time thinking about how my actions are affecting others more than I was before. I’m definitely more grateful for experiences and people than how I was before. Studying philosophy has been really eye opening for me. I feel a lot more in touch with the moment now after spending more thought about where I am and what I’m doing at that moment.
Paragraph 3: Further Questions and Intellectual Work Left to Do
Where do your intellectual quandaries go from here? What do you wonder about now that you may not have before? What questions do you still need to answer for yourself. If you like, include a list of roughly 4-6 questions this project sparked for you about yourself, life, or the human place in the world/universe.
INTO THE WILD intertextual literary analysis.
Chris McCandles relationship with his father and mother highly influenced his outlook and attitudes towards human life, Chris’ experience with his father relates deeply to mine, and I feel as though our morals and values are impacted from childhood experiences.
Into The Wild by John Kraken features parental trauma and the product of a broken childhood, in which the events of the book and movie interlock within my experiences growing up and being a young adult. Chris McCandles writes in a letter to his sister Carine while he’s away at college, "I'm going to divorce them as my parents once and for all and never speak to either of those idiots again as long as I live." Chris obviously presented his feelings about his parents as hateful and he wanted nothing to do with them. Chris’ experience growing up was a common American childhood experience. Many families in America divorce and the kids who encompassed these families often experienced their parents’ get into daunting arguments. Unfortunately, this means that many people are going to share the same outlook as Chris. Resentment is a common result of childhood damage and often follows into adulthood, Chris was a perfect example of how toxic authority figures drove Chris to ditch his family and leave behind everything.
Similarly to Chris, I have felt an underlying hatred for my parents. My experience as a kid fell parallel to Chris’, I spent many of my years growing up not understanding why my parents were so mad. As a result I still feel distant from my parents and siblings after everything that happened. I wrote in a letter to my father about addiction, “This made me and our family incredibly angry, we felt as though our presence in your life wasn’t as important to you as the high you were getting on the weekends. I have resented you for this for a very long time. ”(Sturm, 2021). I find my hurt still lingering around my parents and plan to leave as fast as possible as soon as possible. This to me is a direct relation to what I read into Chris McCandles story and the actions he felt obligated to take as soon as he got out of his parents grasp.
Chris and Carine were the closest out of all of the family and he still disappeared from her life without any contact to her whatsoever. Chris’ resentment towards his parents seeped into his relationship with his sister and spoiled it. While the McCandles family faced difficulties, Chris and Carine were the only source of stability within the family. When Chris left he stopped talking to Carine alongside his parents. Carine writes in her book The Wild Truth, “I believe Chris went into the wilderness in search of what was lacking in his childhood: peace, purity, honesty. And he understood there was nowhere better for him to find that than in nature.” (Carine McCandles, The Wild Truth) The relation Carine had with their parents drove Chris to cut off her relationship with her as well. This goes to show that Chris wanted nothing to do with his family, unfortunately Carine was still a part of it.
Chris McCandles’ story retells many of others’ who grew up in broken homes. The effect of trauma influences everything. Chris’ morals were inflicted by what happened to him in his childhood. While reading Into the Wild I felt deeply connected to the characters.
Into The Wild by John Kraken features parental trauma and the product of a broken childhood, in which the events of the book and movie interlock within my experiences growing up and being a young adult. Chris McCandles writes in a letter to his sister Carine while he’s away at college, "I'm going to divorce them as my parents once and for all and never speak to either of those idiots again as long as I live." Chris obviously presented his feelings about his parents as hateful and he wanted nothing to do with them. Chris’ experience growing up was a common American childhood experience. Many families in America divorce and the kids who encompassed these families often experienced their parents’ get into daunting arguments. Unfortunately, this means that many people are going to share the same outlook as Chris. Resentment is a common result of childhood damage and often follows into adulthood, Chris was a perfect example of how toxic authority figures drove Chris to ditch his family and leave behind everything.
Similarly to Chris, I have felt an underlying hatred for my parents. My experience as a kid fell parallel to Chris’, I spent many of my years growing up not understanding why my parents were so mad. As a result I still feel distant from my parents and siblings after everything that happened. I wrote in a letter to my father about addiction, “This made me and our family incredibly angry, we felt as though our presence in your life wasn’t as important to you as the high you were getting on the weekends. I have resented you for this for a very long time. ”(Sturm, 2021). I find my hurt still lingering around my parents and plan to leave as fast as possible as soon as possible. This to me is a direct relation to what I read into Chris McCandles story and the actions he felt obligated to take as soon as he got out of his parents grasp.
Chris and Carine were the closest out of all of the family and he still disappeared from her life without any contact to her whatsoever. Chris’ resentment towards his parents seeped into his relationship with his sister and spoiled it. While the McCandles family faced difficulties, Chris and Carine were the only source of stability within the family. When Chris left he stopped talking to Carine alongside his parents. Carine writes in her book The Wild Truth, “I believe Chris went into the wilderness in search of what was lacking in his childhood: peace, purity, honesty. And he understood there was nowhere better for him to find that than in nature.” (Carine McCandles, The Wild Truth) The relation Carine had with their parents drove Chris to cut off her relationship with her as well. This goes to show that Chris wanted nothing to do with his family, unfortunately Carine was still a part of it.
Chris McCandles’ story retells many of others’ who grew up in broken homes. The effect of trauma influences everything. Chris’ morals were inflicted by what happened to him in his childhood. While reading Into the Wild I felt deeply connected to the characters.