Author: Vaishnavi Katta

Some of my favorite memories involve me sandwiched between dining room chairs, in a cave of stolen blankets. A wonderland of my own making, lit from the inside with fake candles and children’s laughter. Whimsy feels like a word lost to childhood, lingering amongst scattered memories. Something to be found only in stories and songs, but this whimsy has not died, it is merely lost. Ask any child and they’ll tell you if something is lost then it can be found. They’ll jump up and down, put on their cape and crown and embark on a quest. Adventure is not just a children’s sport, we too can embark on our own quest for whimsy, and that is exactly what artist Sophia Streu does in their art. 

 

Me: So as president of Campus Creators, what do you create?

 

Sophia: I’ve tried so many different things. I even did sewing at some point, but um I was bad at it. Now I work a lot with posca pens. I also like acrylic a lot because it is a really forgiving medium and it’s easy to work with.

 

Me: Such variety, I love that. How did you develop your artistic style? I know you’re not one to stick to one form of media.

 

Sophia: It kind of developed when I stopped telling myself how to make art. It was something I didn’t realize I was doing for a while. I think it’s like that with many creators. Like with the internet, it’s easy to get into the trap of wanting to be like other people, but then you think who are you?

 

Me: How do you deal with that pressure?

 

Sophia: I definitely pull a lot of inspiration from fellow artists and everything, but I realized that what I create doesn’t have to be good for me and it doesn’t have to be good for everyone. As long as I am enjoying the process, it’s worth it.

For Sophia, the process is marked by returning to a state of childhood. During our conversation, they pulled out their sketchbook, and inside was a picture of them in a pink tutu. The kid in the picture was wearing an open-mouthed smile, looking excited to be caught in the moment.

 

Me: Did you do a lot of art as a kid?

 

Sophia: I did a ton of art as a kid. I just always loved it. I got in trouble for it too, like when I colored my hair with Sharpies.

 

Me: *laughs* classic. Do you think that has anything to do with your art now?

 

Sophia: Yeah I’m learning to bring the wonder back to life. I very much live my life like I am still 10 years old. Our 10-year-old selves were so much happier than our 20-year-old selves. What can I say, I love a bit of whimsy and magic. I just enjoy thinking and doing silly things. 

 

Living life more light-heartedly is a way to light up the mundane for Sophia. They recently started carrying around a sketchbook with them, where they put anything from drawings to stickers. It serves as a repository for the wonders of life, where photos, words, and drawings all meet.

 

Me: How else do you imbue a sense of wonder and whimsy into your life besides art?

 

Sophia: Honestly some days I like to treat myself like a child. I create a little checklist reminding myself of my chapstick and gum and stuff like that. *Laughs* It’s kind of dumb, but I like bringing my snack and feeling ready for the day. It’s little self-care things like that.

 

Sophia has an interesting perspective on self-care. While self-care in popular culture brings up the image of face masks and relaxing with a book, self-care does not just exist in a state of rest.

 

Me: So what does self-care look like to you?

 

Sophia: For me, I’ve found you can still prioritize self-care in a way that is still active. Like self-care can be a day in bed and a face mask. Every now and again you need those days, but those aren’t the only things you can do. You can do things you like, or get up and be active. I’ve been learning to take on that lens because it’s a way of introducing self-care into my day-to-day life. 

 

Sometimes self-care looks like waking up our sleepy childhood self and once again looking at the world with bright eyes. It can be taking a walk if you’ve been working two hours without much progress. It can be spontaneously dropping in on a friend, writing bad poetry you will never show anyone, or putting on some music and dancing your heart out. The essence of self-care is self-awareness. As children, we were so in tune with our needs. We know the cure for boredom is fun, and the cure for fatigue is a long nap. It’s never a bad idea to step into the mindset of a child and really take care of our needs. Sophia has inspired me to rebuild that blanket fort, so I may get back in touch with my inner child. I want to put on my cape and join them on this quest for whimsy. 

 

If you would also like to join this quest, check out Sophia’s socials and Campus Creators:

@soupinss

@skeebledee

@oncampuscreators

 

 

If you’ve ever read the Great Gatsby, you’ll know the narrator, Nick Carraway, seems like a stranger in his own life. He is an observer, watching as his life unfolds in the third person. One of my favorite quotes from Nick is “I was both within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.” I feel that in my own life at times. The hustle of it all can be overwhelming, and oftentimes I feel like I have no control. I realize, the further away I get away from my authentic self, the less I feel in my own body. I become a marionette held up by the expectations that guide me. 

 

Being creative is a way to escape the hold of these strings, and that’s something creator Anna Ho embodies. Being a sophomore at Ross Business School, she is no stranger to the pressure to achieve and how stifling it can be.

 

Me: So what’s it like being a business student? It seems like there is a lot of pressure there. 

 

Anna: *sighs and laughs* It’s definitely difficult, they make it set up in a way where everything is so competitive. 

 

Me: How does it affect you to be in such an environment?

 

Anna: You know it can be isolating. Sometimes it feels like in a world of yellow people, I’m a red person. 

 

Me: Yikes, that does not sound fun. How do you deal with that, being a red person in a yellow-person environment?

 

Anna: Honestly, I think it’s just about doing what makes you happy. When I am myself, there are always going to be people who judge me. No matter what I do, or what I wear, I find that people can be passive-aggressive about it. At the same time, when I am myself, other people appreciate that. They’ll look at what I wear or something and say “I like what you’re doing.” That’s something I find really nice cause it feels like it’s okay to express myself the way I want.

 

Me: So it’s about being authentic?

 

Anna: Exactly.

 

Me: Might I ask who the authentic you is?

 

Anna: *laughs nervously* Uhh.. good question. 

 

Talking to Anna, I was immediately comforted by her energy. I have the feeling she’s the type of person to sit you down and treat you like a friend whether or not you’ve known her for 10 minutes or 2 years. She puts this energy into what she creates. A dancer since she was 7, she is used to using her body as a tool for expression. Perhaps that’s what drew her to fashion.

 

Me: I know you’re into fashion, so got any style tips?

 

Anna: So many. I’ve tried so many different styles throughout my life and I think it’s just a matter of interest. Honestly Pinterest, do you have Pinterest?

 

 Me: Yeah *sighs* It fuels my shopping addiction.

 

Anna: Girl, same.

 

Both: *Laughs*

 

Anna: No, but it’s fun though. Also “what are you wearing” videos in New York. People in New York go all out.

 

In addition to fashion and dance, Anna likes to explore new realms of creativity. She’s begun journaling more often to relieve stress and hopes to own her inner grandma by learning how to crochet. She’s made me want to try new things too, and she does a good job selling the idea of podcasting. It must be the business student in her. 

 

Me: Okay so speaking of podcasts, you have a mind maps podcast right? What was the inspiration for that?

 

Anna: It was actually high school. I took this one class with my French teacher who also taught a news broadcasting-type class. He was super into videography and I was too. Anyway, he talked to us about how easy it was to set up a podcast using this platform called Anchor, which basically takes care of all the podcasting logistics for you. It uploads straight to Spotify and everything.

 

Me: So what you’re saying is I could just start a podcast right now?

 

Anna: I mean…

 

Me: So what’s the mind maps podcast about?

 

Anna: It was about exploring different people’s mindsets outside of my little bubble. At first, I just interviewed my friends but eventually, I got to branch out and talk to other people. It was kind of my way of learning more about other people.

 

Anna agrees that Ann Arbor can be a bit of a bubble at times, with people constantly chasing success. It can be easy to get wrapped up in the rat race of it all. Her mind maps podcast is a way of branching out. Through her podcast, Anna has managed to talk to many different types of students, professors, and professionals. She has gotten to know their perspectives on the world. Her favorite interviewee was a British flight attendant, who lives a fun life far removed from the everyday stresses of college students. She likes how everyone has a story to tell, one that is unique to them.

 

It’s interesting to view our lives this way, as stories in the middle being told. As young students, we can get caught up in our own lives, and forget those around us. Sonder is the word for it, this profound awareness that people are living lives just as complex as our own. It’s a realization that opens life up a bit, that frees us to live life authentically, acknowledging there is no way our stories can be the same as someone else’s. Reminding us to own our individuality.

 

Me: So back to the authenticity question. Who are you at your most authentic self?

 

Anna: Hmm…I feel like my authentic self is just somebody who doesn’t care what other people think, someone who does things for themselves. It’s about doing things that make me happy, not because I think someone expects or wants that from me, but because it feels genuine to me.

 

Fortunately for Anna, she has found some like-minded people in Ross, other creators looking to express themselves. While in the same class, Anna met Sophie and Simon. Later, they met Priya and formed Campus Creators. A new student organization focused on giving creators a safe space to come together and foster creativity. Reaffirming the idea that it’s okay to be authentic, no matter how that looks. 

 

Find Anna and Campus Creators Here:

 

ig:@_anna.ho

ig: @mindmapspodcast

ig: @oncampuscreators

In Greek mythology, Hercules was given 12 labors he needed to complete to atone for the murder of his wife and children. These 12 labors involved doing the impossible: defeating hydras, taking an Amazon’s belt, and picking the Hesperides’ golden apples. While we might not have to deal with gods, myths, and monsters in our everyday life-we do have our own herculean tasks to manage. The hardest of them all is maintaining focus.

I have tried mindfulness in my own life and there is something wholly impossible about focusing on something in a world full of distractions. We are always plugged into something whether that be the music in our ears or a movie running in the background. We are not at a loss for stimulus, we are burdened by it. Facing such a burden means we are easily detached from where we are. We don’t stop to think about the beauty of the stars, or the focus on a stranger’s face.

Tola, a photographer, tries to challenge this way of living. Tola, like the rest of us, is busy and struggles to stop and smell the roses. For her, photography is a tool to employ mindfulness in her life. It forces her to pay attention to the moment and capture it. When taking a photograph, she needs to find out how to best capture the truth of her subject matter. This means she needs to consider angle, contrast, and color amongst many other things. It helps that she’s been doing this for such a long time.

Me: So what originally got you interested in photography?

 

Tola: It was my mom actually, she was a photographer.

 

Me: So it runs in the blood?

 

Tola: Kind of, when I was younger she would take me to her photography studio and let me play with her camera. She even let me play with photoshop. Back then, photoshop was like a big deal because you needed to pay a lot of money to license it. I would change people’s hair colors and just mess with them. We traveled a lot too, and she would take thousands of photos everywhere we went, and I just always remember her with a camera. Like her, I just automatically started taking photos everywhere I went.

 

Me: How were your early photos?

 

Tola: They were bad, but I mean with anything creative that’s how you develop right? I started doing it more professionally in high school and then pretty soon my friends would ask me to photograph different things for them.

 

Me: You became the designated friend group photographer.

 

Tola: *smiles* yeah, basically. 

 

Tola, like most artists, started off taking photos of everything and is still in the process of figuring out her favorite subject matter. However, she does know one thing and that is she loves taking pictures of people in their most organic form. A lot of this stems from her interesting 10th-grade experience when she went to a traveling high school.

Me: Okay, so traveling high school? Please tell me more about it.

 

Tola: Yeah I get that a lot, people are confused by it. The whole concept is that you live in a country every couple of months and the entire school travels with you. That’s the students, the teachers, and the staff and they arrange accommodation and everything. We went to Peru, San Francisco, and Morocco.

 

Me: Where was your favorite?

 

Tola: Probably Peru, the people there were just amazing. *laughs* I mean, to them I was the outsider so they wanted photos with me and they’d let me take photos of them. It was just a very cool experience. 

 

Me: That’s amazing.

 

Tola: It feels like a dream but then again it changed my life so much, so the experience itself was very real. 

 

Inspired by the people she met while traveling, Tola likes capturing the essence of the human experience. She loves taking candids, looking for the moment when someone is completely caught up in conversation. These moments are rare and impossible to capture without luck and good timing. Moments of authenticity and connection. A smile caught half forming, a conversation between two friends or the brief prelude of autumn offered by early September. Through photography, Tola sees the value in these moments. She grounds herself in the present, in life itself.

 

Me: So what does it mean to capture a moment?

 

Tola: Well, it’s hard because if you are telling people you are taking a photo, they’ll just pose for it. You can’t ask someone to pretend to do something, they need to be actually doing it. It has to be the right moment when they are so immersed in what they’re doing that they forget that I’m there. I really like those moments.

 

It’s about authenticity, it’s about being real in a world that seems so curated. Tola’s photography and the rest of her creative pursuits work to ground her in a busy fast moving world. A reminder that in a life as busy as this one, it’s important to stop and capture the moment- with or without a camera. 

 

You can find more of Tola’s photography here at arts. ink:

http://artsatmichigan.umich.edu/ink/author/akilian/