Who the heck are you is a project where we chose someone to interview and recorded their answers.

At first we wrote letters to interviewee, to ask them if they would be okay with being interviewed. If they accepted, we then wrote questions for them, if not, then we would choose someone else. My interviewee was my cousin, who grew up in Berkeley Hills, California, with his sister, Sophie. He went to an art college in Chicago and now lives in New York City. The questions that I asked him were:

1. How was your experience in college?
2. What were some important points in your life?
3. What was life like growing up in California?
4. What job would you like to have?
5. Why did you move to New York?
6. How did you feel when our grandparents passed away?
7. How often did you get into trouble as a kid?
8. What is your favorite pastime?
9. What made you want to involved with art?
10. What sports did or do you play?
11. Do you have any hobbies?

Next came the interview. I recorded it on my phone, it lasted 30 minutes. I learned about his childhood, his life in college and what he’s doing now.

Then we wrote the most interesting parts about it, and drafted out 2 pages, telling the story of the interviewee.

 

Life of an Artist 

By, Armant

Imagine what it’s like to grow up just south of the famous Golden Gate Bridge, surrounded by vineyards. Will Becker is my cousin who grew up in Berkeley Hills with his sister, Sophie, and went to a public school, even though his parent’s considered sending him off to boarding school. His grandfather on his mother’s side owns a vineyard and makes wine. Everyone was friendly where he grew up, “If you called someone something mean, you would be the scum of the earth to everyone else.”  Will got into trouble often as a child, while his sister hardly ever did. He started playing lacrosse when he was in fifth grade on a team called the Bears. Hardly anyone played lacrosse in the Berkeley, so there were about as many lacrosse teams as there are intramural teams in this school. “Our team was the pretty much the worst team, and we hadn’t won in about a year, and when we did break our streak of losing, our coach bought us taco bell. Then we started winning more games, without getting taco bell at the end.” For his seventh grade games, his coach would create a drink called baby bear blood, which was a mix between red gatorade and flaming hot cheetos. Then he would leave it in his car for a week to get the players energetic and excited. Most people either got sick or vomited (it didn’t work).

In his graduating year of high school, Will had no idea what to do next. “My parents said they wanted me to go to college, but I didn’t know what they meant.” He didn’t know what to study, he thought about history, or science, but neither really satisfied him. He knew he wanted to be involved with art after he saw a program called Oxbo, which inspired him to look into 3D art and sculptures. He then went to a school in Chicago called School of the Art Institute, which was associated with a museum. “This is what I want to be around for the rest of my life, this is where I belong.” He said. In his last year of college his grandfather fell ill with leukemia (brain cancer). Will felt empty because he lived close to them until he went to college, and work kept piling on, which just added to his stress and sadness. He felt like a part of himself had left him, because they saw each other so much and because of that they were so close. It wasn’t the first time he had dealt with death, his dog passed away two years before, his grandmother on his father’s side passed away already, but this one hit him harder than all the other ones “I got a call from my mom a week before, saying he had cancer, but he was so strong that I had thought I would at least see him again.”  Will saw his grandmother on her deathbed a year later than her husband. She had a recurrence of brain cancer, but this time she didn’t have her love of her life to keep her determined. She stayed sick for about a month of sadness. Everyone knew it was coming, and that she wasn’t going to overcome it this time. Will visited her about two weeks before she succumbed to cancer. She was lying in her bed listening to 80s music. Will asked if she liked it, and she quickly replied no. So he changed the music to her favorite band and tried to talk to her, but she was hardly replying to what he said. After about ten minutes, he gave her a hug and left the room. He was aware that it would be the last time he would see her, and because of that tears were pouring down his face. It seemed that in her last moments, she was also suffering from dementia too, because she seemed to forget some people were. Will also saw his grandparents on his father’s side the day before he passed away. “When I tried to start up a conversation, he didn’t respond to me. He just stared up into the ceiling.” He wasn’t as close to him as the other grandparents, but he still knew him, so it hurt that he would never see nor hear his grandfather again.

After Will was finished in college he was considering moving to LA, but he decided to move here, New York, instead, because he has family here (me), and lot’s of people are moving to LA, so he wanted to try something new. Also there are a lot of artists in New York and it’s housing is cheaper here than in Chicago or Los Angeles. Will now lives in Brooklyn, exploring galleries and museums, drawing pictures and sculpting on the computer, making friends and going to clubs.