Creative Awakenings: Vol. 1

Written by Edith Manfred, Graphic by Anna Porter

We all had that moment when, as children, we realized that we had a connection to art. That art, in whatever medium, brought something out of you, made you think differently and made you notice something new about the world around you. “Creative Awakenings,” otherwise known as the specific moments or happenings in your childhood that turned your life into an artistic direction can be extremely influential while holding an element of nostalgia as we reflect on how they shaped our lives. Creative Awakenings can be weird, random, and unpredictable, but whatever they were, they clearly impacted the trajectory of your life’s creative pursuits. 

The concept of “creative awakenings” as childhood moments that directed you towards art occurred to me as my friends and I had our weekly dinner discussion of what movies, TV shows or books shaped us as kids. It seems that everything from Little Women to Fetch With Ruff Ruffman (I wasn’t the only kid on earth who watched that?!) got us as kids to think outside of the creative box we were given in elementary school art class. To begin my exploration of the creative awakenings that have shaped SCAD students, I started with myself and what artistic experiences put me on the path toward art school and aspirational photojournalism that I find myself on. In this first volume of creative awakening explorations, I will share some of my own awakenings from my childhood, beginning with the wildly monochromatic revelation that the “Rhapsody in Blue” Fantasia 2000 animated short film was for me. 

George Gershwin’s composition Rhapsody in Blue, originally sixteen minutes, was made into a twelve-minute animated short film as a segment for Disney’s Fantasia 2000. As soon as my dad plopped me down on the couch in front of the family computer at some point in the late 2000s and pulled up the YouTube video of the film, I was enthralled. The way the entire film was in monochromatic blue tones to reference the title blew my young mind (basic, I know), and the elegant and dramatic animation of the characters, each of whom I felt emotionally connected to, was simply beautiful. The most impactful thing that sticks out is how this film synchronized orchestral music to animation, which I must’ve never seen before. Though I didn’t grow up to be an animation major, watching this short film inspired me in terms of illustration and how music can be emotionally impactful. Though it was just a twelve-minute short film, Rhapsody in Blue touched my young mind and pushed me in the direction that illustration and animation can be fun and enthralling. 

The next and one of my childhood’s most impactful artistic experiences was at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, PA, at some similar point in the late 2000s. One of the things I love the most about my family is our dedication to museums, as we try to go to art galleries and history museums in almost every place we travel to on vacation or at home. The Carnegie Museums were a staple weekend experience for my family as kids. While the interactive science museum was usually my favorite, I always had a young appreciation for the art museum. 

On this specific Carnegie visit, I remember being deeply struck by a photography series in the art museum. I don’t remember too many specific art pieces in museums as a kid. Still, I vividly remember seeing a series of framed photos hung up beside each other, picturing a mother-daughter and the daughter holding her doll. This was Yemeni photographer Boushra Almutawakel’s “Mother, Daughter, and Doll” photography series from 2010.  In every photo, they’re posed the same, but as the photos go on, they’re successively dressed in more and more heavy clothing. They start in street clothes, then add hijabs and end in full black burqas, with the last photo in the series being of simply the empty black backdrop with no bodies in sight. Almutawakel’s work often focused on gender and identity within the Arab and Muslim perspectives and this series showed a domestic relationship from this perspective. This series gives a powerful voice to the covering of women, whether voluntary or compulsory and shares the unique perspective of Muslim women’s participation. 

I truly credit this photo series for shaping my young mind to see different worldly perspectives. The young girl looked my age. I had a doll similar to hers, but I wasn’t being forced to cover my face, hair or skin. Why was this? What was keeping me from being in her position? Simply fate of not being born in the same place as her. The added detail of relatability beyond seeing a similar mother-daughter energy to the one I shared with my mother was seeing the doll in a burqa. Everything about this photography work touched my child’s mind. I had never seen myself in photography like that before, and it showed me how photographs have the power to show us both ourselves and global perspectives we wouldn’t know about otherwise. My future aspiration to be a photojournalist was genuinely shaped by seeing this work as a child and gaining the new understanding that there were little girls like me all over the world, all living infinitely different versions of life. 

It’s rather rare that as a kid any art got through to me as anything more than entertaining or pretty to look at, but both Rhapsody in Blue and “Mother, Daughter, and Doll” both influenced my view on the power of art. Creative Awakenings like these can be life-changing, and I’m so excited to find out what my fellow SCAD students’ childhood awakenings are.