KALYN DUNKINS ‘17
Editor-in-Chief
Being as creative as I am, I’m not a big fan of being a part of anything that prevents me from being able to express my creativity. Numbers and I only get along best when there’s a dollar sign preceding them, and the only chemicals I’m interested in getting close to are the ones I apply to my face when I do my makeup in the morning. I have always been and will always be an art-oriented person.
Having cinema as one of my majors (an art form that incorporates creativity, some science, plenty of patience and skill), I am allowed leniency in the projects I create. As far as concepts go, I’m in good standing so long as these concepts incorporate techniques learned throughout the classes I’ve taken. All of this is a lot of time-consuming work that many people outside of the field are blind to.
In the American work force specifically, fields like mine are often overlooked because it is argued that they bring no substantial value to “real life.” I’m beyond tired of people asking me, “Oh, what do you plan on doing with a degree in that?” What do you mean what do I plan on doing? I want to use my art to move people.
Along with my creativity, I’m a very dramatic person (suitable that cinema is my major, right?). Much of the art I create, whether it is cinematic or otherwise, is the product of an emotion I have either felt myself or something I have felt vicariously, empathetically. But we live in a world where people are so quick to shun emotions.
Logic over passion and feelings, right? Don’t use your heart, use your brain? Looking at the arts this way, it’s easy to see why the wrongful conclusion that they are worthless is drawn.
I believe, however, that you can’t use one without the other. Am I advocating that mathematicians and scientists drop their calculators and test tubes to pick up paint brushes? No. That artists should stop dancing, stop acting, put their cameras down so that they can tell you what the square root of pi is? Absolutely not.
What I hope is that pathos and logos can find common ground, work with and around each other, respect each other’s niches. Even more importantly, I hope the world can become a place where artistic students like me who will graduate college feel less afraid about their passions being employable.