"Out of the Art Closet and Into the Middle School"

Angela Nichole Schowengerdt, The University of Montana

Abstract

In this project my primary goal was to expose the public to the artistic self that I was so sure of in high school, but had lost in the years following. I was so sure of myself and art while in the confines of middle school and high school. Once I got into college I found myself lacking that confidence, due to the fact that I was surrounded by many great artists and I felt as though I was not so great anymore. I lost sense of who I am as an artist, and put that talent on a back burner in my life. Since I began the creative pulse, I began regaining a sense of who I am, and realized that I had lost something I truly love. In my field project the first year in the creative pulse, I worked at creating a mural for my unborn child. After realizing that I could do that, I gained some lost confidence and decided to do the stage design, lighting, and artwork for a school play and as my final creative project. I would be working with a colleague and friend in this endeavor, which made it seem a little more doable. After tackling the personal task of ‘doing art again,’ I felt that the next step in reclaiming myself as an artist was to go big. By going big I mean involving everything I am surrounded by on a daily basis: colleagues, students, family, public, radio, news, and newspaper. I felt that by doing this, my artistic self would have no choice but to be shown; it could no longer hide.