"I Am You" is about how when we grow up, the roles become reversed between parent and child. When I was little, my parents would hide the truth from me to protect me and so I wouldn't have to carry the burden of knowing such awful things about the world. Now, I look back at what they did, and I feel disgusted (even though I love them) at how much easier it would have been if they had just been honest with me. Ever since my brother Matthew was born, I have felt very protective of him and I want to conserve all the good in him. I know that eventually I will have to make a choice: to lie to him and carry that lie in my conscience, or to be honest with him when he grows up and watch as his hope dies, and his goodness starts to crumble and fade away as a result of knowing.
"The Fire" is about the necessity of fire in our world, and what it provides. Fire creates destruction and consumes everything it comes across, but it also means rejuvenation. It creates a perfect balance and represents the chaoticness of our world. Fire creates light to contrast the darkness, and it symbolizes the intensity and impact that human emotions can have. I like how fire symbolizes many different things across varying cultures, to the point where you get the notion that maybe fire isn't good or bad: it's more about how you see it as.
My artpiece is titled, "Heavenly Curse." The message I wanted to send was how when you are a child, you tend to romanticize the people you love and think they are perfect. As you grow up, however, you realize that they have a monstrous and ugly side to who they are. An essential part of growing up is realizing that everyone you know has a good and evil side to them, but that is what makes them human. In the end, it all boils down to whether or not you truly love them. If you don't think they are worth it, then you should let them go and stop keeping them in your life. If you love them and think they are worth fighting for, then you will accept them as they are and stay with them anyway. This is the reality of what love is: a sacrifice full of heaven, but also of hell.
"Ambiguity" is a very personal piece. If I had to tell my younger self one piece of advice that I would need for when I grew up, is that there is no real right or wrong, except for the universal laws. I spent most of my childhood worrying about what the right thing to do was, but I realize now that morality varies from person to person (right and wrong is mostly subjective). All human beings, adults included, are just people who are trying to do the right thing, despite their faults. We have to do what we feel is right, even if it might not be compatible with society's black-and-white approach to ethics, but has no place for emotionally-driven actions. Our culture may be wrong about some things that may make us feel uncertain about what we do if we follow them, but we need to do what we feel in our hearts to be right, so that we can have at least a clean conscience.