You Are A Book

"I am me. I may look like you, but if you take a closer look you will realize that I am nothing like you at all. I am very different. I see things through a completely different perspective because in my life I had experiences that you didn’t have, and I had feelings you didn’t have, and I’ve lived places and seen places and experienced life from a completely different point of view than you have. I may be wearing the same shoes and the same haircut, but that gives you no right to have any preconceived notions about what I am or who I am."

                You are a book. Like Keith Haring’s quote said, you are unlike anyone else, with different experiences, perspectives and dreams.

                How can you define your individuality, your character, your uniqueness, by creating book?  How much freedom do you have by creating a book that defines you? What is a book?

                So this is the first art assignment that my Grade 12 art class has received. It is basically about finding ourselves, and realizing how our own experiences defines us and separates our ability to communicate and create art.  This activity focuses on pushing our own limits without going past them. We must define ourselves by using an inanimate object instead of other resources.  I apologize in advance because it may be kind of hard to follow my train of thought throughout this piece. A book is such a broad topic and I feel it would be both easy and extremely difficult to express oneself through a book.

                To define ones individuality and character by creating a book that defines you would be complicated.  I think that it could be done, but the question would no longer be the capability of completing the task, but the willingness to allow that many others a window to your life and all of your experiences; both good and bad.  A book is very straight forward, it is a concrete object and anything written in it cannot be taken back.  Would you choose to share the truth of your own life with all of your readers?  Or would you still hide behind a fake persona and sugar coat your life to have others believe you had never endured any hardship?  Would you portray the live you have lived or the live you wish you’d lived?

                Creating a book to define yourself would not be black and white.  Your freedom would be unlimited on certain levels while greatly stifled on many others.  One freedom that you would have while creating a book is that you could choose exactly what to put in it.  You could fill it with pictures, words, lines, shapes, anything that you felt sufficiently defined who you were as a person, it would not necessarily have to make sense to other people, as long as it made sense to you.  You could share your earliest memory, and name you favourite television show, you could include quotes or lyrics that you felt represents parts of your life, or leave pages blank representing stories you didn’t want anyone to hear.  There would be a huge amount of possibilities but many restraints would still apply. 

                In my opinion, one major freedom you would be lacking is the ability to actually share experiences with your readers.  You could write about something, a day or a place, even attach a photograph, but it would not be the same as actually being in that place at that time.  The reader would not see what the writer wrote, smell the air, taste the nature, feel the trees, or hear the wind.  The feeling that the writer had at that moment could be imagined, but never replicated, the reader would never experience what the writer wrote to the full potential.  So the question arises, if no one understands, is there even a point in sharing that story? Or should that page also remain blank among many others.

                What is a book?  A book is what one chooses to share.  A book is enlightenment.  A book is a chance to learn, a chance to better understand another point of view, if you take the opportunity.  A book is a chance to share ones stories, if others are willing to listen.  A book can be anything, if given to the right reader.