Jack Anderson

I saw a chair.

I saw a table.

I saw a laptop case.

I saw a big TV.

I saw a backpack.

I saw people sitting at a table.

I saw a water bottle.

I saw an empty Starbucks cup.

I saw floodlights shining on blank, white walls.

This was the list I created while sitting at my chair trying to figure out what I should write about for sentences beginning with “I saw”. These are all random objects that most of the time I would never think twice about. When given the task to write 10 sentences starting with “I Saw”, I just started naming random things I saw around me. It wasn’t until after I finished this list I realized that unless I was told to do this, I probably wouldn’t have even paid attention to these things. I see, use, and depend on most everything on this list on a daily basis.

As I was walking back to my dorm after class on Tuesday, I began to look around me. All I could see was a beautiful campus that was beginning to look less stunning as I became accustomed to it. When I first toured SMU I was in awe. It truly is a beautiful campus with equally incredible academics to match. But day-by-day I begin to see flaws on the campus as well as flaws in the students that attend SMU. I am not bashing the school in any way when I say this, I love it here and I am thankful to be given the opportunity to go here. However it is college and no school is perfect, I understand that. After coming tothis realization, I knew that I wanted to make a series of art works based on this idea. SMU has flaws despite how perfect it may seem from the outside. Only until you immerse yourself and become part of the SMU community do you begin to see the weaknesses that most people on the outside would not be aware of.

As a began to collect my thoughts on what I wanted to do, I looked toward Edward Hopper’s famous painting, “Nighthawks” for inspiration. Hopper apparently began working on this piece right after the attacks on Pearl Harbor, which there was a widespread feel of loneliness and depression throughout the country. I feel like the gloominess in this piece embodies exactly what I want to do for my collection. I also would like to go out of my comfort zone with this project and use techniques, mediums and methods that I have never worked with or attempted before. I want to create them through drawing, painting, photography, and sculpture. I like the idea of experimenting with two or more of these methods to create a piece. I also want to use different styles to see what I am actually capable of doing.