Fireside Chat

Artist Statement

I feel like The Fireside Chat was the perfect project to end the semester with.  Throughout the semester we have been stretching our creativity in ways that we did not even know existed.  This assignment was the marriage of that newly found creativity with the core beliefs of our hearts.  It is something essential that every artist must learn how to do.  How do you communicate your cause through your art?

To start out I had to consider what I really believe.  I brainstormed all the different sets of beliefs I have and what points I wanted to get across.  Then I remembered Benjamin telling us how a parent once assumed that The Fireside chat was graded on the effectiveness of producing a certain feeling or response from the audience. Benjamin told us that that was completely opposite to the point.  I realized that the purpose of this assignment was not to be didactic.  The purpose of the assignment was to share what was most important to me.  It was to be sincere no matter what response it would evoke.  Coming to this realization, I considered what motivates me more than anything.  It is my desire to serve others with my talents. 

The next step was to figure out some artistic way to present this belief.  I decided that the most sincere way would be the simplest way – to speak from the heart and use accompanying images for a backdrop.  What kinds of images could I use?  The very works of art that inspired me to adopt this ideology – “Les Miserables,” and the “Little Prince.”  One of my favorite quotes in “The Little Prince” is when the Prince speaks about the Lamp Lighter: “That man would be scorned by all the others… nevertheless he is the only one of them who does not seem to me ridiculous. Perhaps that is because he is thinking of something else besides himself."  I would use this to illustrate my belief that it doesn’t matter how great or small your contribution is so long as you are serving in whatever capacity you can.  To finish, I would share something that I had created with the motivation of using my talents to serve – a parody that I made with Divine Comedy.

As I shared my cause to the class I felt very vulnerable but I think that was the point.  The purpose was not only to be authentic but practice empathy as others boldly shared their feelings.  In was as Dave Isay told his grandson “if everyone stopped and listened, I think we would see that we are not nearly as different as we think.  We’d see a little bit of ourselves in the stories of strangers.  Because when we take the time to really listen… we know that every voice matters (Listening is an Act of Love, https://youtu.be/8rgJRzz_zHo ).”  If there is one thing that I think Benjamin would want us to take from this class, I think it is this – our voice matters.

Speech

In preparing for this presentation, I thought about what key beliefs I have, and what I wanted to get across when I realized that the purpose of this assignment is not to be didactic.  It is not for me to use missionary-like zeal to convince you guys into believing something that I believe.  The purpose of this assignment is to be authentic about my beliefs.  So I am going to talk about what motivates me more than anything else, what I cherish most – my belief in serving others.

But as a disclaimer I am not going to talk about volunteering in hospitals or raking people’s gardens.  I believe in serving others with my talents.

I think it all started during that awkward time in junior high.  I remember walking down the crowded hallway and feeling an overwhelming sensation of love for the hundreds of people I passed by.  Later in high school my love for those around me increased as I served in student government.   I began thinking about other ways I could make people happy and I thought “I Know people are happy when we win our football games, I’ll join the football team so I can guarantee the win,” That year we went from second in state to last in region.   I realized that my lack of athletic ability was causing more misery than happiness and so I left the football team and started a tailgating club called “The Beards of Extraordinary gentlemen.”  (Because beards make people happy).    Since most people couldn’t grow beards, the club was an opportunity to gather as many people as we could to eat, socialize, and play Jenga.  I continued looking for ways in which I could bring joy to people’s lives and got involved in many other things including musicals and finally film.

All of these things are normal hobbies that everyone has, but to me they were opportunities to serve.  Service is literarily the motivation for everything I do.   It is why I aspire to be a film-maker.  Someone in the program told me the other day that he will no longer work for free.  I understand that we must make a living, but as artist we have an enormous opportunity to create things that inspire, entertain, and simply bless people’s lives.  I believe that it is our responsibility to give our best work, even if sometimes we have to work for free.  I know that I will probably never create something that reaches a ton of people or is life changing, but that is not what it is about.  It is about serving in whatever capacity I can.  Because without it, life would be without meaning. 

Currently I have the wonderful opportunity to make videos with Divine Comedy.  I probably invest the same amount of time in it as I would a part time job.  None of us get paid, but the payoff of providing comedy is well worth it.  Matt Meese from Studio C once received a letter from a teenager who was involved in a severe accident with 2^nd and 3^rd degree burns all over his body.  He said that on the way to the hospital he watched studio C to keep his mind off the pain.  Stories like these remind us why we do what we do.  I’d like to end by sharing some happiness you all with our latest video.  It is a Parody of the Beats by Dre commercial.