Still Life
I like books a lot. I don't read as much as I used to, but I still enjoy it from time to time. I also write a lot, both prose and poetry. I relate to Edgar Allan Poe, in particular, in that my stories are split pretty evenly between horror and comedy, with the occasional action or adventure story, usually incorporating fantastic or quasi-scientific elements into them regardless of tone. Digger, meanwhile, is one of my favorite books and my favorite comic (I actually met the artist/author at one point, which was very exciting), and the Encyclopedia of Gods ties into my interest in mythology and folklore.
I chose to photograph video game controllers because I enjoy video games, and because controllers, in particular, were historically a passion of mine. I used to want to start an entertainment company, and I almost obsessively learned about different types of video game controllers to try to come up with the best design possible for my own theoretical controller. While I no longer have that particular plan, I do still have a tendency towards getting very invested in particular things, probably due to my ADD, which often has that effect on people who have it.
I really like the particular games I picked for this still life. Journey is a good example of video games as art; its only aim is to tell a story and look aesthetically pleasing, which it does quite well, in my opinion. It also represents the hero's journey archetype pretty much perfectly. I'm very invested in both storytelling and art, so it makes sense that a game with a good plot and good visuals is so compelling to me. Fire Emblem Awakening, meanwhile, was another obsession of mine (as was the Fire Emblem series as a whole) for some time, and Super Smash Bros. holds a lot of nostalgic value to me, as I played it, often with friends and family, since I was young.
I chose to photograph presents because my family is important to me, and Christmas tends to be that kind of event for me. I have a lot of nostalgia for Christmas as a kid. Almost every year, I would go to my grandparents' house and go to the midnight service at the church they attended. (This was a pretty unusual experience for me, since I rarely got to stay up that late at the time.) Then, I would go to sleep, and when I woke up in the morning, I'd unwrap presents with my family. In later years, we started going to my aunt and uncle's apartment in Chicago instead, which has also grown on me quite a bit, though this year we stayed at our own house.
Art, especially drawing, is very important to me. I've filled up plenty of sketchbooks, and occasionally backs of regular notebooks (oops), with my drawings. Lately, I've started branching out into other media, like digital art (well, MS Paint), photography, and painting, which has also been very exciting. However, my ultimate passion when it comes to the visual arts is definitely drawing. It's the medium I've used the most over the years, and easily the one I'm most skilled at, as a result.