STRING THEORY

During my 2022-2023 academic year (junior year of high school), I was assigned to create a series of artwork around a central theme. I had always been the artist that possessed a lot of technical skill and could draw almost anything realistically. Until that assignment, I had never tried to be creative or draw something that wasn’t exactly like the photo. Until that assignment I had never even created a series of artwork. I was stumped.

And so that’s where I started everything: the concept of Artist Block. I drew myself in my creative space, my disastrous room, and tried to capture that feeling of not knowing what to do or even where to begin. From there, I decided I wanted to keep creating artwork about me.. creating artwork. But it felt boring to continue using the same medium I always used, so I had to change something. I’m actually not sure how I ended up using string as my new medium, but it just flowed naturally throughout the series. As time progresses, you can see the artwork develop and become more cohesive and complete. String is slowly integrated until at the end, some of the pieces are made entirely of string.

This series is a testament to growth. It proves that art takes practice and time, and ideas aren’t perfected on the first try. Even though this series of artwork is about my personal journey with a new medium of art, I hope it is also proof to anyone reading that you can be an artist as well. I encourage you to leave behind your doubts and keep doing what you want to do. And honestly, life is just a ball of string, why not unravel it, have some fun, and make a mess?

Natalie Erler, 2023