Assignment #1

Make a list of 100 things that you like

Make a list of 100 things you like in no particular order. Avoid the obvious (significant other, cake...) and be completely honest with yourself. If you try to think of things that you are curious about and inspired by, you'll end up discovering a lot about yourself and in doing so developing a sort of bank of your interests and ideas.

1. Electrical tape

2. Pearls

3. Domestic cats

4. Harry Potter

5. Hyacinths

6. Oil pastels

7. Ancient Chinese ritual vessels

8. London, England

9. Fred Tomaselli

10. Weird Mormon culture

11. Getting my teeth cleaned

12. Steinway pianos

13. Idaho

14. Caravaggio

15. Crop dusters

16. The smell of Tide detergent

17. Awkward moments

18. Meryl Streep

19. Virtually all baby mammals

20. Natural light

21. Les Miserables

22. Cellos

23. Lightning

24. Being alone

25. Lilacs

26. Nineteenth-century French Realism

27. Red accent walls in kitchens

28. Television programs about the paranormal

29. Shakespeare

30. Kohl’s

31. Three-piece suits

32. Qawwali

33. Andy Goldsworthy

34. My signature

35. Southern accents

36. Sand dunes

37. The MoMA in NYC

38. Old jars and bottles

39. Wheat fields

40. Mascara

41. Longboards

42. Acoustic guitars

43. The first day of spring

44. LDS Church history

45. Moving walkways in airports

46. Hoodies

47. Yellowstone National Park

48. BYU

49. The Spanish language

50. Broadway musicals

51. Pedicures

52. Quotes by Neal A. Maxwell

53. St. George, Utah

54. Collecting seashells

55. Opals

56. Old milk cans

57. Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets

58. Gossip Girl

59. Compliments from strangers

60. Justin Bieber

61. Running the tips of my fingers very lightly across my forehead and eyelashes

62. Stupid YouTube videos

63. The first line of “Good Life” by OneRepublic

64. General Conference weekend

65. Always being able to blame my sometimes uncontrollable emotions on hormones

66. Bachata

67. Going to church

68. Making art out of the food leftover on my plate at restaurants

69. The Fourth of July

70. Post-Apocalyptic movies

71. Welding

72. People who look like celebrities

73. Men crying

74. Looking online at engagement rings for no reason

75. The color of my hair

76. Fog

77. Latinos

78. Sleeping in new places

79. The final scene of “Finding Neverland”

80. Brand-new returned missionaries

81. Every time my mother quotes literature or poetry

82. People who can whistle really well

83. First-time dads in hospitals

84. The Santa Monica Pier

85. People who I can be silent with and not have it feel uncomfortable

86. Defending my religious beliefs

87. Painting stuff that’s not really supposed to be painted

88. Bottles of Coca-Cola

89. Going the speed limit in order to annoy aggressive drivers

90. Painting with coffee

91. Horchata

92. Quoting “Dumb and Dumber”

93. Cheerios

94. The friends from high school who still actually inspire me

95. When people admit that they’re wrong

96. Hot tubs

97. Band t-shirts

98. Astronomy

99. Monarch butterflies

100. Idaho sunsets

My Summer Plans: Learning to Love You More

The best art and writing is almost like an assignment; it is so vibrant that you feel compelled to make something in response. Suddenly it is clear what you have to do. For a brief moment it seems wonderfully easy to live and love and create breathtaking things. In a sense, these are assignments - in the same way that the ocean gives the assignment of breathing deeply, and kissing instructs us to stop thinking.

I was introduced to learningtoloveyoumore.com about a year ago. Created by artists Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher, this website is comprised of work made by the general public in response to specific assignments. Participants accepted an assignment, completed it by following the simple but specific instructions, sent in the required report (photograph, text, video, etc), and then their work was posted on-line. "Like a recipe, meditation practice, or familiar song, the prescriptive nature of these assignments was intended to guide people towards their own experience." The project lasted from 2002 to 2009 with over 8,000 participants. The results were not only posted on the website, but featured in exhibitions in museums (The Whitney in NYC, to name one), galleries, schools, senior citizens centers, radio shows and film festivals.

While this project has been expired for nearly three years, I have been compelled to begin my own LTLYM blog / experience. I've chosen about 30 of the assignments posted on learningtoloveyoumore.com (I've opted not to do every single assignment due to a lack of resources...or I just didn't feel like doing some of them) and will be completing them over the next few months. Anyone is welcome to join me in completing and reporting on any and all assignments!  


Also, since I abandoned my first attempt at a personal blog, I intend to use this as my artist website once I've completed all the assignments. The title of my site comes from a quote by Andy Warhol:

An artist is somebody who produces things that people don't need to have.

The further and further I get into my practice as an artist and as a future art educator, the more I understand why I chose this. The purpose of art - something that took me years of searching - is to allow us to take part in what I believe is a fundamental longing implanted into human nature and that is the desire to create. It's not something that vital to our survival, but like water and air, provides sustenance to the unnecessary in life - the desire to love, to hope, to change, to grow.

Usually when I tell people that I'm studying art, the first thing they ask is, "So do you like to draw and stuff?" The first part of that question is easy to answer. Do I like to draw? Sure. It's the "and stuff" part that is so much more important. Unfortunately it would take a lifetime to explain to someone my reasons for engaging in the art world, what it means to me, and who I am becoming because of it. But hopefully I can start explaining here.