Week 6 EOC: How has art changed me?

I feel art has always had an influence in my life. Like any person who feels they need to make a living as an adult I did not pursue any art education when I was first attending college. It felt that there was no way of making a career out of being creative. My mentality was to do something that I thought I could live with. I thought that was social work. Turns out it wasn't my kind of work. Art really influenced my life when I traveled to Florence, Italy for six weeks. That was where photography really influenced in my decision to pursue art as a career. "Art and culture are both beauty and power. While they enrich, beautify, and entertain, they also inform, innovate and connect. Engaging in creative process allows access to; the language needed to build community across difference; the tools needed to inform, engage and mobilize; and the imagination needed to create new political, social, economic and technological solutions to the challenges we face as a nation in a changing world." (http://www.artischange.com/)

Since my discovery I began my schooling at the Art Institute of Las Vegas. Though some classes feel like a chore, like any type of schooling, but it was here that I finally realized that other people have been affected by art as well. For the first time I have projects and assignments on subjects that actually interest me. "When strategically engaged, art challenges, educates and informs to create awareness."(http://www.artischange.com/) Instead of it feeling like tedious work it felt like I was learning something I could put to use. After each quarter I felt myself becoming more and more comfortable with my abilities and trusting that I did have talent to be a photographer. Before coming to the Art Institute I knew I could take a picture but it wasn't till I finally discovered that you can love your career that really changed my way of thinking of art. I have always surrounded where I live with art and it took a while to understand that was what I was suppose to be doing. Creating art. "Regardless of whether one considers him or herself a part of the creative or cultural community, cultural transformation is possible only when art, culture and creative process are acknowledged, engaged and present."(http://www.artischange.com/)