Let me get started by saying that I am not a creative person. I have an analytical mind. I'm totally a left-brained person and sometimes that makes it difficult to find the deeper meaning in things because I tend to take them at face value. So I can totally get behind Kleon's idea that "our work doesn't speak for itself". I've been to art museums, and when I look at a piece often my first assessment is "Oh, that's neat-looking" or "People actually paid money for this thing?" (but hey, I guess it's like Kleon said- one's man's trash is another man's treasure). So I find them boring. I want to be told about the piece of work, I want to know why the artist was passionate about it. I want a reason, and I think that's a very human reaction.

The idea that everything has a story behind it reminds me a lot of a British Literature class I'm taking. Our professor focuses a lot on historical context because she feels that it will give us a better understanding of the literature that we read. I enjoy this method of teaching because I agree that in order to understand the importance of a piece of work, you must first understand it's background.

So, in order to understand my work (or why I feel that it's special), you must first understand the context - and that is that I am NOT creative. I would classify myself as artistically challenged. So when I accomplish something remotely aesthetically pleasing, I'm so proud. So I apologize in advance for being ~basic~ but here's a picture of probably the only thing I've painted since middle school.

Oh and here's a cool picture I took in my hometown. Because photoshop and Instagram filters are the only way my creativity manifests, apparently.