I really enjoyed Mark Snyder's presentation of pain in art. Although I had an idea of what I wanted to do for the visual project, some of the artists that he introduced further developed my ideas. I've looked at Barbara Kruger while doing visual research for my own senior show. She is a pioneer in the ways that she incorporates text into art and the messages her work delivered. She has a strong design sense that any artist would be wise to emulate.

I loved Tracy Emin's work. I admire her use of mixed media materials and text to deliver her ideas. In my own experience I find it hard to deliver a specific message and reach the viewer's sensibilities without the use of text. A piece can stand alone but many times the viewer sees his own personal understanding in the work (which is a good thing) but text is useful in art for directing the viewer’s thinking.

David Clark was another artist that appealed to me. I've visited his work before but I've never seen any of his films. I liked what I saw of Bully and I think I would like to see the whole movie.

I find that my art is more about pain than beauty. There will always be a debate about what constitutes something as art. Art is subjective, but in my opinion I think among other criteria, art inspires some type of reaction from the viewer. Art merits some type of closer inspection. Strong art delivers a message and the viewer takes something away from the piece. In this way it is much the same as pain is. Love also. Maybe that is why these factors are catalysts as well as inspirations for creation.

I was reading about Frued the other day and somewhere it said that Frued believed 'sublimation' was the only proper defense mechanism. Sublimation is the transformation of unwanted impulses into something less harmful...a release...such as art is to those with pain/ expressing pain.