Statement from featured artist, Genry Salvador:
In my youth, I was isolated from others due to a language barrier. As such, I often found myself frustrated as I could not communicate with anybody besides the teachers teaching me English. Due to this isolation, my outlet and source of interaction became the blank parts of my homework. This habit followed me home and I began to spend hours upon hours doodling, drawing, and ultimately trying to refine my work as this outlet soon became the entrance to many conversations with other kids. It was the first time others went up to me and tried to talk instead of it being the other way around because they found what I made interesting. Art gave me a voice. Although I could not clearly capture what I wanted to say, art to me became easier than words. Art is a universally understandable language as it captures the essence of emotion. From the deepest depressions to the happiest moments of someone’s life, the stroke of a pencil or brush will always be easier to extend my emotion into as there frequently aren’t the words to even explain what I feel. With enough effort, a person can integrate their love for something or someone through art and be able to vividly capture it. Art is the depiction of someone’s stream of consciousness as they work and is often the reason a piece can be appreciated. Emotion is what captures you and makes a piece meaningful to you. The emotion art projects and contains is both the point of appreciation and the importance of creation. Art is a conversation.
