If you see a lightbulb, what do you think of it? An idea? Light? Me too. To me, lightbulbs symbolize two things, vision and mindset. Lightbulbs are a globe-like object that produces light, thus giving you clear vision as it lightens up any darkness. Another common connection people associate with lightbulbs is ideas. Moreover, the lightbulb can represent mental clarity.
As I step more into adulthood, I have come to a brutal realization that the world is a terrifying place. I have established a stronger relationship with anxiety and fear of things in my life and everything happening globally. The world is dominated by advanced technology, social media, etc., and now more than ever, bad news spreads quickly; it is easy to just consume negativity despite the fear of the world, of my own mistakes, of everything I have found myself not wanting to stay in that state of mind anymore. For some reason, when I remember my childhood, I mostly remember blue skies. I always remember painting or drawing or creating something. Where did that go? Could that make me feel better? I wanted to see blue skies again, paint and enjoy it, and I had a craving for the view of the world I had as a child. As a result, I painted my own blue skies on lightbulbs.
For my first draft, I picked up trash I had from the week to paint. Sort of like beautifying trash. Among that trash was a yogurt bottle, a receipt, a glass yogurt cup, and fairy light bulbs I had in my room but broke. Initially, my prompt had no shape; it was a collection of random items with no correlation except for being trash. For my revision, it was helpful to hear what feelings my 1st draft brought to people; this allowed me to use those feelings as the project’s foundation. The viewers’ feelings on the project were exactly what I wanted it to be. An optimistic view of the world, not an over analyzation, just a simple, eye-catching project because of the beautiful colors we are so blessed to see. Since I successfully gave that feeling out, I took that foundation and built further upon one idea, resulting in a much more cohesive piece. Instead of several different amounts of trash, I collected just one. My favorite one, the one that was super fun and calming, was the light bulbs. I wanted to keep the same idea of beautifying trash as my resources, so I began collecting random light bulbs. These lightbulbs have to continue on the theme of my optimistic view of the world, so I chose to narrow the entire world into my little world. My little word consists of 4 of my happy places, where I have the best memories. Since I have such a positive outlook on these 4 locations, that would be the best way to ensure a happy perspective on life is channeled through my paintings. Lightbulbs have small globes themselves, so I wanted to place the bulbs on mini location maps that would be placed on a flat earth-like surface. After I constructed this idea on sketch paper, I put a wholesome baking show on and got to painting. When painting, I thought about how each location represents a happy place. Therefore, while painting, I thought Santo Domingo: Paint a colorful abstract representation of my culture’s signature colors; Costa Rica: Paint a colorful representation of the beauty in its nature; New Jersey: A painting that gives me a zen-loving and adventurous feeling and finally Washington Heights: A colorful painting that represents the most colorful place in NYC through my eyes. Once the light bulbs were done, I focused on their placeholders, the globe, and locations. I cut out the locations in circles, cut the “world” with cardboard and stuck blue and green paper, and then attached the areas around the flat earth to represent my own little world. After that was done, with the help of a hot glue gun, I glued the tip of each lightbulb onto its designated location, and viola! There it was, a new and improved project that went from shapeless to a familiar shape: circles. The circles illustrate a zoom into this positive world. At the top, you have the lightbulbs, a globe-like object on top of the circular locations that give you insight into how the artist sees each location. The foundation is a general Earth because how the artist views their own small world impacts their view of the entire world.
This project means a lot to me because it allowed me to be a child again. It allowed me to paint without a worry in the world, and it helped express my yearning for a child-like outlook. The bulbs are light, colorful pops of light that center me and remind me that the purpose of life is to continue to chase the blue skies, be creative, laugh, make memories, and just be a child again. What if maturing is realizing that you have to make time in this world to do the things you used to find joy in, to stay sane and happy in an easily darkened-up world. When painting these bulbs, I felt a sense of mental clarity; I felt safe and like this was a healthy challenge that added meaning to my life. This project is significant to me because it focused my vision and mind on the beautiful things in life. While that could be considered an optimist and sometimes unrealistic cliche worldview, it is accurate. We all need to feed our brains light and positivity more often than we let darkness come in.
