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Unveiling the Inner Artist: InterArts Cabinet of Curiosity

Naomi

Naomi
Naomi doesn't fully consider herself to be an artist, only because the term artist seems a little too professional, so instead she prefers to think of herself as an expressionist. She has used art to express herself since she was as young as seven years old, whether it be in a song she wrote and sang or a story she told to her family and herself over and over in her head. She was born in Worcester Massachusetts and raised by her mother who is one of her strongest inspirations. Coming from a singing family, she has large shoes to fill but has come to accept that as long as she is her authentic self in her expression, that she is doing her absolute best.

Her music style varies constantly, but can usually average out to a mix of pop and indie. Music to her is a way to either release the pains of life or celebrate the joys. It's a healthy outlet that is always there for her to exploit. She has recorded three songs since last year and although she has yet to release any to the public, she hopes to soon begin making music as a hobby/enjoyable career, but most likely under a pseudonym to avoid pressure.

Writing stories is another form of expression that Naomi frequently enjoys doing. Most of her stories are result of maladaptive daydreaming which she has done since she was young and then liked to call, "telling herself a story." She has written three short stories since arriving at Trinity in the fall of 2020, but hopes to one day finish her novel that she started senior year and publish short stories and novels as a career.

Academically, Naomi hopes to pursue psychology and neuroscience but is still trying to figure out her major. In everything she does she attempts to stay true to her faith and honor her family.

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The Black Man: His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Achievements
By Dionne Hardy and Naomi

By definition a Cabinet of Wonders is something that should invoke questions, astonishment, and at some points awe. We believe that this not only applies to our time period but we also believe it should apply to the time period the object was created in. An object in a Cabinet of Curiosities should make a person question why, no matter when they are viewing it. We chose our object for this reason, along with many others.

We chose a book from the Watkinson Library titled, The Black Man: His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Achievements by William Wells Brown, published in 1863. William Wells Brown was an escaped slave and abolitionist lecturer and is considered to be one of the first African American’s to publish a book. This book is considered one of his greatest pieces of work. It debunks the misinterpretation that black people have to be surrounded by white people in order to succeed. William Wells Brown was born into slavery in 1814 or March of 1815 near Lexington, Kentucky. He was a descendent of Mayflower passenger Stephen Hopkins through his father. His mother was a slave of Native American and black ancestry. She was owned by John Young and she had seven children all by different fathers. Brown’s siblings were Leander, Solomon, Elizabeth, Benjamin, Milford and Joseph.

To paraphrase information given by the library, the book encompasses short and informative biographies of “noteworthy” African American’s from that period. In the library the page is open to the biography of Reverend James Pennington, a black man who escaped from slavery in 1827 when he was 20 years old and, as described by Brown, was “ignorant of letters”, which we assume to mean unable to read and write effectively. Eight years after his escape he was admitted as an auditor to Yale, back then it was called the Yale Divinity School. Once there he studied and mastered Greek, Latin, and German. Pennington eventually led the Talcott Street Congregational Church from 1840 to 1847.

Earlier we stated that objects in our Cabinet of Wonders should invoke a sense of astonishment and awe, but should also make the viewer ask questions such as why. Upon first viewing this book in its display case one of the first questions we asked was why. Why would someone like William Wells Brown take the time to publish a book about noteable African American’s in the 1800s? Someone may consider now, looking back on what happened during that time, that publishing a book wouldn’t help very much in the grand scheme of things. Racism still ran ramped in America and still would no matter what was published.

But the point was not drastically changing society, it was simply bringing awareness. Not just about the fact that there were successful intellectual black people in the world, but that there could be. A common assumption during that time period was that black people were nothing without the aid of white people. That they needed the help of “white saviors” in order to become accomplished and civilized. Brown took the power of his literary voice, and disproved that assumption with sheer fact. Was Brown able to stop all racism with a single novel? No of course not, but the book brought awareness in place of ignorance to those who read it, which was definitely a step in the right direction. His very existence itself was a sign of hope for all black people, free or enslaved. He himself was a well-educated black man publishing books and making speeches, something that black people were not supposed to be capable of doing. The idea of black people being inferior, uneducated and unsuccessful without white people is still prevalent in the present day.
Beady Bird By Naomi

I chose an image titled “Young Short-eared Owl, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts” photographed by ornithologist Herbert Keightley Job (1864-1933).
Herbert Keightley Job was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and went on to claim the titles of minister, lecturer, author, pioneer wildlife photographer, and ornithologist during his lifetime. He served many roles as an ornithologist, including being the State Ornithologist of Connecticut from 1908 to 1914, and being a member of the Connecticut Agricultural College, which is today known as the University of Connecticut Storrs from 1914 to 1924. He fulfilled several different roles after the aforementioned, as well as photographing the collection of photos my object is included in, titled, “Early Ornithology Lantern Slides,” before his passing in 1933.
The type of bird shown in my image is a Short-Eared Owl, as can be deduced from the title of the photograph. The owl in this photograph in particular appears to be in the early stages of life and was possibly startled by Job as he took the picture.
There are a couple of reasons why I chose this object in particular. There were plenty of options amongst the birds showed and portrayed in the many photographs and drawings included in Job’s collection. I chose this image for one because it was taken in Massachusetts which happens to be my home state. The title immediately drew me in, as I have lived in Worcester, Massachusetts my entire life and have never seen a bird like that. The second reason I chose this object is that the bird itself terrified me. I realize that this sounds dramatic, I wasn’t shivering with fear when I first viewed it, but I was most definitely unsettled enough to burst out laughing in an attempt to place my feelings somewhere that made sense to me. The bird’s eyes were just so beady and it’s pupils were so defined by the yellow irises that I felt as though the bird were staring into my soul. This is why I felt I had to transform the object.
The object itself was already transformed in my mind per se upon first viewing it, into the feelings that overwhelmed me. I make music whenever I feel something or view something or do something that doesn’t really have a comfortable place in my subconscious. For instance, if I want to be friends with someone who hates me, I write a song about it. If I hurt someone and never have a chance to apologize, I make a song. If I view my parents fighting as a small child, I write a song about it. If I’m terrified by a tiny bird whose piercing stare just seems to be unforgettable, I make a song. I transform my feelings and therefore the catalyst of those feelings, into something I can work with. Thus I chose to transform this object because it made me so uncomfortable. But that isn’t to say that I think it’s an awful image or anything like that. I believe that all the creatures God gave us on this planet are beautiful and deserve appreciation, which is why I made sure not to bash the bird in my song. I acknowledge that the bird makes me uncomfortable, but that I still sit confused by how beautifully disturbing it is. I hope that others are able to appreciate this picture in its entirety and, if they find themselves to be disturbed, are able to find a sense of reprieve in my song.
Beautiful: A Story for Chris
By Naomi
Finding a gift for Chris was something I never thought I would be tasked with, but a
challenge I was willing to embrace with excitement. After a lot of thought, I was reminded of a
story that Chris wrote semester. The story followed the life cycle of tadpoles in an extremely
visual and visceral way. What was unique about this story though, was Chris’s ability to
implement complex language into his writing. There were so many words in his story that were
far past my personal levels of comprehension, but it was clear that he was using them to add to
the richness of the story.

This story made me think about how much of a difference the diction used in a story can
make. A person can say the same thing with different words, but two messages of varying
impacts will be conveyed. The sentence the sun is shining and the sentence the sun’s rays
are billowing down in ribbons of warm, relaxing light have the same meaning, but very
different impacts. It was understanding this that inspired me to write the story “Beautiful”, A story
about a boy who brightened the world with the use of color and vibrant words.

Since the story revolves around the power of language, I wanted the language of the
story to gradually become more and more complicated as the story itself progressed. This
created a challenge for me because my writing style revolves around my attempts to immerse
the reader in the world of my story, using as descriptive words as I can. But the point of this
story is that everything is simple and boring but not unpleasant. It’s that the world itself was
incapable of being described immersively by words due to the citizen’s misuse of language. As
a writer, I had to find a difficult balance between inviting the reader into the story and letting
them see it, and using too descriptive language that the impact of the progressively complex
language would lose it’s effect.

Another challenge I ran into was with Chris’s writing style. Since this is a gift for him, my goal at
first had been to mimic his style in a way of sort of honoring it, but this brought about even more
issues because Chris’ writing style is incredibly unique and hard to emulate. The other issue
was in mimicking Chris’ vocabulary. I spent hours upon hours looking at thesauruses and
dictionaries trying to expand my vocabulary enough to mimic his use of language. I quickly
realized that gaining the ability to do so in such a short amount of time was impossible. So, to
solve both of these problems, I chose to simplify the writing style and try to model it after a
children’s book. That way, any use of complex words would be impactful since the entirety of the
book was simplified. I wouldn’t have to use insanely large or rare words in order to show the
main character’s knowledge, and I wouldn’t have to attempt to immerse the reader too much
since the story would be meant more or less for children and their imaginations would be able to
run with even a small amount of information.

Taking all that into account, it took a good amount of time and effort to write this story.
But it’s one that I’m proud of, and one that I hope Chris will appreciate. Writing this was a
journey for me, but it was a fun one.
A Song Out of Nothing
By Naomi
It’s a Beautiful Day
The following are lyrics to a short song I sing when I’m happy:

It’s a beautiful day
I’m gonna take a stand
It’s a beautiful day oh
I’m gonna take stand

I woke up with a fresh melody in my mind
Taking bout, the good things that I’ve come by
There is something deep inside of me, that smiles wide
When I’m talking bout, the good things that I’ve come by

I drag my feet out the door

With my friends, we all sit happily, in my mind
Except it’s real now, and part of me doesn’t know how to act
I told a joke and their laughing, in my mind
Except it’s real now, a part me still don’t know how to act

I drag my feet out the door

Cause it’s a beautiful day
I’m gonna take a stand
Things are going my way
And for the first time, things don’t feel so bland
I’ve been hoping for a huge change to come around
But for the first time in a while
I think I’m found
Ooh ooh
For the first time in a while
I think I’m found
Ooh ooh
For the first time
Explanation
Often times when we are going about our daily routines, maintaining our sanity amongst the hustle and bustle of normal activities, we perform many mundane tasks that we come to view as insignificant due to their repetitive nature. When something is perceived as insignificant, oftentimes by not even being perceived at all, it becomes meaningless, and when something becomes meaningless, one can almost think of it as not existing at all. Nothing.

On special days in particular, as I am going throughout my daily routine, there’s a song I often find myself singing. It’s a song that I can never tell if I heard somewhere during my travels, or if I wrote it a long time ago. I sing it so often that it’s second nature to me, I naturally let the words flow out of my mouth when the sun is shining and my spirits are high. I’ve tended to regard this song as insignificant in the past, as it’s unfinished, but I never let myself forget how happy it lets me feel.

I thought of this song when I saw the prompt for this class because it’s part of my monotonous routine that I tend to regard as nothing, but how wonderful it makes me feel motivates me to make it something, by finishing and recording it.

My fourth object submission, something out of nothing, is the lyrics of a song I wrote to raise my spirits during happy days. It’s special to me because I rarely—and by rarely I mean extremely close to never—write happy songs. So to have a song that I specifically sing when I’m happy, gives me hope for the future. That one day I’ll not only have happy songs but ones that range in mood, from sad to happy to angry and maybe even jealous. I try to reference things that make me happy in the verses, like waking up with a melody in my head or telling a joke that makes my friends laugh. The repeating build that I have throughout the song, “I drag my feet out the door” references the daily struggle I have to get out of my room and face the day. While this struggle might not follow the upbeat mood of the song, it’s the outcome that I have of finally getting out of my room that gives me joy, it’s about how good the accomplishment of getting up feels.

While I was unable to record the song due to a lack of time and skill, I did manage to write the rest of it and create a final draft of the lyrics. The process itself was very difficult. Usually, song lyrics just run out of me, often times faster than I can write them down, so I just set my phone to record and sing all of my ideas out loud until I’m empty. But when I tried to write this song, I found myself struggling, which was something I wasn’t used to. Then it hit me: I’m not used to this. I write songs to let emotions out, to release the pain and tension I’m feeling about a situation. I’d never tried to write a song to honor or celebrate an emotion I was feeling. So I sat down and I worked hard to write what I did. It may not be as eloquent as my saddest songs, and it may not be a tear-jerker like my saddest stories, but it makes me happy, it makes me feel something good, so to me that’s all that matters. I’ll end this explanation with another short tune I sing when I’m happy, one that I’ve yet to finish, but one that I can still believe to be beautiful.

Everything is going right for me
Yeah, things are looking up
Everything is good right you’ll see!
I’m just not used to this

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Naomi