The eight bodies of work in this collection are all answers to the question, "Can you help me with my project?". After the initial raised eyebrow, widening of eyes, and inquiry of just how much help I would be requesting, I received eight enthusiastic responses. I asked each participant to send me pictures of their work, whether it be sketches, paintings, or photographs. It was completely up to them to decide what pieces they wanted to share and what medium the art could be in. After receiving the submissions, I was impressed by the coherence of each set of work. It was interesting to see how different each artist's point of view was how it was reflected in each piece. It became easy to distinguish the differences between contributors and the look of their art.
For this project I wanted to exclusively showcase artists who are students at UC Santa Cruz and may not have had a chance to showcase their art. Though I have friends and family whose art has been published and showed on a larger scale, I decided I wanted to show only people who I know from school. All of these artists are part of the same community and have a chance to interact on a daily basis, but rarely interact in the artistic sense. Through this project, the participants are indirectly conversing with each other, being placed side by side in this project. It can be easy to forget that one holds a passion for art, making it more impressive to see how many different creations can emerge from one small group of people. Some contributors offered to send multiple portfolios while others sent libraries of photos they took on a lazy afternoon. While their mediums and styles are all unique, the contributors share the common thread of using art as their form of creative expression.