Kurt Vonnegut described his sentiments in regards to writing. He said, “When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth.” I’d say I feel the same way most times, but writing is nice nevertheless. Aside from being interested in writing and reading Vonnegut, I am also intrigued by other creative subjects such as multimedia design and film. I work as an assistant editor for The Catalyst, a literary arts magazine on campus that fuses together written works and images of all sorts. As for my interest in film, I was an intern for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival prior to the pandemic abnormality. I am a fourth-year English major with no clear direction on what I want to pursue post graduation, which may sound alarming but I’m not too worried. However, I am convinced that I want to work in a creative field whether it be in writing or film.
Creative writing
I was inspired by deforestation after having taken a course about Fantasy and Ecology–the texts gave nature agency. How would nature react to its treatment by humans? I was also a big fan of personification and that element in storytelling–giving a voice to those without one.
Year-long Project
I designed and wrote a literary arts magazine called Winged Monkey, that focuses on unorthodox characters, situations, and settings. In order to create these unusual narratives, I took an interdisciplinary approach. I gathered ideas, people, and events from different areas of life to fabricate these stories. Topics include the fear of mortality, historical figures, and scientific discovery. I meshed these elements together to form the written portion of my project and also decided that images or art would make this collection even more effective. I drew digital illustrations that contradicted the somewhat shocking writing. I did this purposefully as I was striving for a sort of balance between the slightly grotesque writing and the brightly saturated and almost good-natured imagery. This juxtaposition between the writing and art is a decision and style that I enjoy and am glad that I got to experiment with during this year.
