So two weeks ago, Ocean Vuong's "Essay on Craft", one of the poems from the poetry panel really stuck with me. You can read the poem in its entirety here , but it's essentially about how artists often take inspiration from painful moments in their lives. This is especially clear in this section: ———— So I dipped my fingers back into the fire, pried open the lower face until the wound widened into a throat, until every leaf shook silver with that god -awful scream & I was done. & it was human. ———— The visceral image of a wound widened into a throat (a voice) in order to make something so clearly portrays this message. However, this also reminded me of David Armsby's short film, Scary and Strange , as well as the accompanying "making of" video on his creative process. To summarize, the short film serves as a reminder not to overly romanticize or hold onto the pain in your life for the sake of your art. Drawing on pain is an easy way to inject st...
John. John is Wong.