I would like you to create an ABOUT ME page that will serve as your anchor page in your main ePortfolio for the course. This page will be seen by me and, eventually, other students in the course. Please make sure that you add all of the following to your page (at minimum) and feel free to be creative with your design, layout, and adding more than required below. I want this to be a creative activity for you:
Upload at least one photo of yourself, and if possible, more than one photo to offer two or more sides to your personality.
Write a descriptive biography of at least 150-200 words (this can be written in a text box or you can upload a video or audio file of you talking) that tells me and your fellow students who you are.
Artifact 1 - Photo: Steven Lee, "May 3, 2022 Subverted Selfie Project Post," Instagram / Flickr, 3 May 2022.
I'm a third year Bachelor of Fine Arts student at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. I was born in the City of Williams Lake, British Columbia, a small town nestled in the wilderness of what is known as the Cariboo. Looking back, I know I was fortunate to have been surrounded by the natural landscape of forests, lakes, and giant blue skies. But sometimes I do lament that maybe I took it all for granted. And maybe it wasn't so much that I took it for granted, but rather it was more that my young mind just thought that this was how everyone on Earth lived.
My parents retired to South Surrey when I was thirteen and it was around that time that I developed an interest in wanting to learn how to paint, based off having spent too many Sunday afternoons watching Bob Ross on PBS. Today, there are so many places in Metro Vancouver where one can take their kids so that they can learn how to paint and play with fine arts. But when I was younger, this wasn't the case. Somehow, my Mum found a local artist, Vee Hansen, who did teach adults how to paint with oils on canvas, and I'll always be grateful that she let me join her classes, as painting would became something I've always enjoyed.
Artifact 2 - Photo: Steven Lee. "Brene Brown Imperfections Quote." @creeksideoracle on Instagram, 14 Mar 2022.
MY LIFE WITH DEPRESSION
In 2020, I was diagnosed with having major depressive disorder - something that I now know has been with me since I was a kid. I try to be open about my struggle, which isn't easy as an empathic INFJ-T. But I'm not as ashamed of it as I used to be. As described in this Instagram clip, by @happinessproject, I’ve come to believe that:
“…mental health and physical health are literally the same thing. When you break a bone, you don’t hesitate to tell a friend or a doctor. The same should be for your mental health.”
I struggle with the idea that we live in a society where we say we are accepting of talking about mental health, but too often we shy away from those hard discussions. Maybe if society took these issues more seriously, artists such as Jean Michelle Basquiat, Richard Hambleton, Francesca Woodman, and so many others, would still be with us today. The CheatSheet website is one of many sites that have published articles discussing many creative individuals who also lost their own battles to depression and mental illness. Specifically, this is discussed by Aramide Tinubu, in her November 2018 article for CheatSheet, called 15 Celebrities We Tragically Lost to Mental Illness.
One thing I'm trying to embrace in my life, is cultivating unconditional compassion, curiosity, forgiveness, gratitude, love, and reverence for all life, including myself. And in the past, its been the “myself” part that has been the most difficult. For a long time, it was far too easy for me to embrace myself with an eye toward self loathing, which I’ve been working to reframe through counselling at Kwantlen, and by learning about depression, anxiety, shame and guilt through authors like Brené Brown. It’s interesting though, as I recently stumbled upon a clip featuring comedian Conan O'Brian, where he described how depression was anger turned inward. And hearing that - it resonated so much. It also surprises me how prevalent depression can be. Shawn Achor, in his book The Happiness Advantage: How a Positive Brain Fuels Success in Work and Life notes how:
In 2004, for instance, a Harvard Crimson poll found that as many as 4 in 5 Harvard students suffer from depression at least once during the school year, and nearly half of all students suffer from depression so debilitating they can't function (Achor 8).
Achor continues, describing how:
This unhappiness epidemic is not unique to Harvard. A Conference Board survey released in January of 2010 found that only 45% of workers surveyed were happy at their jobs, the lowest in 22 years of polling. Depression rates today are ten times higher than they were in 1960. Every year the age threshold of unhappiness sinks lower, not just at universities but across the nation. Fifty years ago, the mean onset age of depression was 29.5 years old. Today it is almost exactly half that 14.5 years old (8).
GOAL FOR THIS COURSE
Tell us what brought you to this course in your academic journey, what some of your plans and goals are for the future, and what you hope to learn and take away from a course dedicated to urban, graffiti, and street art.
I enrolled in ARTH 3160: URBAN GRAFFITI & STREET ART as I'm interested in learning more about alternative and non-traditional forms of art making. My short term goal is to finish my Bachelor of Fine Arts, which would feed into my longer term goal of establishing an emerging fine arts studio practice that I would devote time to alongside working as a production assistant throughout the year on film sets in Metro Vancouver.
WHEN THERE’S a crack in my mirror, I can’t see myself as I am – all I see is the crack. The crack tells me that there is something wrong with me, that I’m not enough and that this is how others see me, too. It’s not a question of finding a better mirror. It’s about seeing beyond the crack. I am not, nor ever will be, perfect. But I don’t need to live for approval. I need to live for acceptance and joy in the unique, worthy, lovable, beautiful, sacred being that I am and to celebrate the same thing in others. That’s seeing beyond the crack. I’m learning to love my imperfections; in the end, they make me who I am, in all my flawed glory. - from his book EMBERS: ONE OJIBWAY'S MEDITATIONS
~~~
WHEN THERE’S a crack in my mirror, I can’t see myself as I am – all I see is the crack. The crack tells me that there is something wrong with me, that I’m not enough and that this is how others see me, too. It’s not a question of finding a better mirror. It’s about seeing beyond the crack. I am not, nor ever will be, perfect. But I don’t need to live for approval. I need to live for acceptance and joy in the unique, worthy, lovable, beautiful, sacred being that I am and to celebrate the same thing in others. That’s seeing beyond the crack. I’m learning to love my imperfections; in the end, they make me who I am, in all my flawed glory. - from his book EMBERS: ONE OJIBWAY'S MEDITATIONS ~~~
Artifact 3 - Photo: Steven Lee. “FADED PLACES” 20"x28" digital daytime long exposure, 23 Feb 2019.
This photo was also showcased as a part of the Surrey Art Gallery’s ARTS 2019 juried summer art show, held from June 28 to August 31, 2019. It was displayed alongside Steven’s video artwork, FROM EAST TO WEST, which was chosen under the Digital, Performative & New Media Art category.
This photo was featured by Esther Amankop Udoh in her article for The Kwantlen Runner called, "Artwork by KPU Students Featured at the Surrey Art Gallery," published on August 13, 2019.
MY ARTISTIC PRACTICE
As I work through completing my degree, my practice has involved the interdisciplinary exploration of a variety of mediums including:
Creative Writing;
Digital Media, Film & Photography
Drawing & Painting;
Performance Art; as well as
Sculpture & Installation.
Thematically, my artwork explores my own personal connection with:
aspects of my own identity, primarily through a subverted selfie project that I started in January 2020, with the goal of presenting an open and honest account of my life, with all of its ups and downs;
consumerism and the proliferation of waste; as well as
our changing landscapes, and in particular the impact of development on both urban and rural areas.
Upload a selection of at FOUR “artifacts” that lets us know who you are through your tastes and interests in popular culture/music/art/hobbies/fashion/style. Think of this as YOU at a glance. Using the “+CONTENT” tool at the top of your PebblePad page, you can upload these “artifacts,” i.e. YouTube clips, images, audio/music, links to social media accounts/websites, and add almost any other kind of content you can think of that “paints a picture” of your popular culture personality.
Create a text box (separate from your biography) that explains in a few sentences what the FOUR (or more) artifacts are and why you chose them. If you are feeling capable, you can also add captions to your chosen content, but I am ok with the text box explanation as well.
ARTIFACT 4: Art Image
I like taking photographs inside art galleries, snapping images of specific artworks or images of people simply interacting with the space.
In 2014, I attended the MASHUP! ART EXHIBITION at the Vancouver Art Gallery, where I was obsessed with trying to capture an photo of a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat. In our first lecture for this course, Dr. Barenscott noted how controlled the legacy of Basquiat is by his estate, and that reminded me of the time I took this photograph.
In short, taking the image of Basquiat's painting, "A Panel of Experts" was not allowed. There was signage indicating that no photographs were to be taken, and there was a gallery guard watching over the immediate area. As such, my desire to break the rules by capturing a photo of this piece was not easy. It required patience and dedication. Eventually, as I stood in my spot, everything fell into place: the guard wandered off into an adjoining space, and the crowd seemed to evaporate from around the painting itself. I still remember smiling as I raised my camera to my face so my eye could look through its viewfinder and snap away, capturing a few images of this beautiful piece, including this one, before quickly walking away.
ARTIFACT 6 - Photo: Steven Lee. “Jean-Michel Basquiat’s A Panel of Experts, 1982 at the Vancouver Art Gallery”, Flickr, 25 Mar 2016.
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s artwork - acrylic and oil paintstick and paper collage on canvas with exposed wood supports and twine. ( 60 × 60 in, 152.4 × 152.4 cm) As displayed at the 2016 Mashup! Art Exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
ARTIFACT 5: Film
One of the last films I saw in theatres before the pandemic was Terrence Malick's A HIDDEN LIFE. I saw it several times before the cinemas closed permanently for the rest of 2020. The film had such an impact on me, that I have been easily reduced to deep, cathartic sobbing with every viewing.
The film was inspired by a real life story about an Austrian peasant, Franz Jägerstätter, who had refused to fight for Nazi Germany during World War II. He would be arrested and convicted to death for his refusal. For me, this film was just so perfect, a quiet epic that focused on Jägerstätter's conflict between his conviction and its impact on the life he had made.
ARTIFACT 5 - Video: Terrence Malick. A HIDDEN LIFE. Fox Searchlight Pictures, 13 Aug 2019.
ARTIFACT 6: Music
As I get older, it becomes more of a reality for me that I've let some things slip away. August 2024 will mark ten years since my ex left me for the man she would marry. Our relationship was far from perfect, but in many ways it was rooted in a love for making art. I recently saw the YOKO ONO exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery and it both inspired and pained me to see the two images that both Ono and her husband John Lennon had made. One painting said, "I love Yoko." And the other, read "I love John."
I think it hurt seeing because I honestly don't remember my ex ever saying that to me in the almost eight years that we were together. But I do remember the trust we had when she created a performance art piece that saw us stand blindfolded, back to back, on one of the four corners of a very busy Georgia and Granville Streets in downtown Vancouver during the lunch hour as people rushed past us, sometimes knocking into us, and the only people either of us could count on to stay balanced was each other.
Ultimately, I chose the Matthew Good song, because he was one of my favorite musicians. But during the pandemic it was revealed how he had abused over thirty women over the course of his career. Good was a hero of mine, someone who had overcome his own battles with depression and mental illness. But when these allegations came out, it was akin to having a father figure die. Ultimately though, as I struggle to resolve my own depression, I'm realizing that I need to be able to say I love you to myself more than anybody else.
ARTIFACT 6 - Video: Matthew Good. “It’s Been Awhile Since I Was Your Man.” Universal Music Canada, 8 Oct 2004.
ARTIFACT 7: My Artwork
In April, I started a new short painting workshop called BE BOLD! by artist Celia Lees with This Is Artify.
Lees’s technique in her opening demonstrations had me working on building up and removing layers to create a smooth background for my abstraction using a few basic tools (a palette knife to mix paint with and a fairly large brush to apply it with, a spray bottle filled with water sprayed directly on the canvas as we went along, and some paper towels to remove water and paint) as well as a few basic colours (in my case, cad yellow, red and a titanium white), using my Open Acrylics Golden Paints.
The main difference between the work I started and the work Lees developed in her painting was the size of canvas. Here, I’m using a 12”x12” canvas board, while the course uses a minimum 24”x36” pre stretched canvas. I’m mainly starting small because I don’t have a lot of space to play around with right now. But it was just nice to get going with something.
Lees’s technique also involved a lot of blending which I love to do anyway. I’m happy with how it looks right now, but found I had to be careful not to overwork things as I wanted some variations between light and dark.
ARTIFACT 7 - Photo: Steven Lee, "Process shot of blended colour," acrylics on canvas, 6 Apr 2022.
Instructor Feedback
NOTE: What is shown on stevelee.art are based on revisions made in consideration of Dr Barenscott’s feedback.
Specific changes to the ABOUT ME biography page include:
Revising and depersonalizing the discussion in the biography section that focussed on my depression, which has had a significant impact on my life, by cutting most of what had been written, and adding outside resources and facts, such as the quotes by Shawn Achor;
Adding the text of what was required for different parts of this page, as described on the instructor’s assignment handout page;
Adding numbering to identify artifacts, with citations in the captions that better identify where each artifact was found; and
Making adjustments to the layout and creating a colour scheme to help differentiate sections that contain answers to different questions.