How did I get here?

So creating something for my map project was extremely hard for me. To be honest I have know idea how I got to this spot in life. The more I thought about it I realized that art has always been apart of my life; in good experiences and in bad and very influential in my life. For the container of my map I used a "spacemaker" or pencil box because I have always loved school supplies. When my grandmother would take me to get school supply she would give me all the boring stuff but when my mother would take me school supply shopping she would always get me a pencil box and as many art supplies would fit in it (usually she would get me more). So it was pretty much the beginning of the art supply addiction I have now. 

When you open the box it contains loose puzzle pieces that are spray painted black, gold and a little of the remaining puzzle color. To me life is like a huge, never ending puzzle. The colors represent Mizzou and the left over puzzle color represents my life still peeking through my Mizzou life. Some are connected with a string to show the connection different pieces have in my life or avenues I have tried but they just don't fit together. The ones who are not connect to anything just show pieces that need to find a place or pieces that I left behind. There is a group of silver pieces that show some of the things I in life or experiences I had that fit together for me, whether good or bad. 

There are nine pieces with a piece of handmade paper on the back. Each piece has a sentence explaining a stage in my life. The reason it is important that the paper is handmade is because making paper in fibers class really got me excited about art since growing up I alway thought art was only painting or drawing, which I'm not good at in my opinion. 

The last piece, which is the biggest, explains how I have know idea how I decided to teach art but I knew I wanted to give students a love for art through an amazing school art experience. Having a good experience with art in school is so important because a lot of times that is where students first encounter art for the first time. There is a quote I created, which is written on the silver puzzle piece. "I had to go through a lot of pieces before I found the right ones that fit together."