I don't know why certain people become the way they are...what drives their tastes, interests, etc. It's not always one thing that hits you in the face and is recognized immediately. But when it comes to my art, I think I've finally found the picture that started it all:



Perhaps it seems silly now, but I saw it at a very impressionable moment in my life. I was 12, just fresh from two consecutive photography camp experiences (I did traditional darkroom photography at Westridge, then a digital photo course at Vassar) and spending the last few weeks before 8th grade in Rome. The movie, better known as A Tale of Two Sisters in English speaking countries, was about to open in Italy and the posters were papering the streets right and left.

My dad thought it was very disturbing and advised us not to look at it, but I was hypnotized. In my pre-teen age of self discovery I was bound to find a foothold to strongly grasp, to define the direction my thoughts would go. A girl who turned away squeamishly from horror suddenly became entranced by it...oh, what was I feeling? And why question it? This was nothing ordinary in my mind, not the standard rake-your-innards-out gore. Right or wrong, the feelings stirred were real given my circumstances and exposure to such things in life. It to me was beautiful and ominous, unlike anything I had previously seen or felt. And the fact that the Italian release date was on my birthday? Icing on the cake (though it must be said I was unable to actually see the movie for another two years).

Sometimes the things that affect you forever aren't the most expected or the most elevated. Some are moved deeply by masterpieces from art history, others by Korean horror film posters. Whatever it says about your character, be it something oozing subtlety or a flair for the dramatic, and whether or not others see what you saw is of no importance. A trigger is a trigger after all, and therefore an inexplicable fondness lingers.