The theme that the Image Tree 2021 Team picked for this year's publication was "In Uncertain Times." We decided upon this theme because 2020 was a year of frustration, worry, and isolation-- a year where we were reminded just how much uncertainty is a part of our lives, and we wanted to allow students to feel less isolated by being able to expunge some of the 2020 gunk creatively. We encouraged students to interpret the theme however they desired--some liked the challenge of uncertainty while others explored themes of fear and isolation that uncertainty brought them. We hope that this collection of works shows viewers that we can come together in times of uncertainty; and that art, being written or other forms, heals no matter the circumstance.
Below is an open letter I wrote about my anxiety during these uncertain times with the pandemic and I feel a lot of people could relate. I go a lot into the uncertainties that people who have anxiety go through.
I love the idea of looking back to the past and trying to learn from it. In such Uncertain times like these that we have been living in, to be able to go back and listen to myself would be very beneficial.
"they knew too" is a piece of dialogue and short poetry that follows two partners through the "end of the world." The first is a struggling kid that's not only lost their stability, but also their trust, faith, and themselves. The second has experienced the same struggles, yet reassures the first that no matter what, they will be with them...
We were walking down the sidewalk
This poem was written out of my need to make sense of a world in which I live as a vegan and others do not. At the time, I had a very complicated relationship with people who ate meat. I couldn't understand them, because I felt like I knew so much about the industry and many of them just didn't...
I made the decision in November to start therapy again, and my therapist has been a hugely positive influence on my self-image. She practices Internal Family Systems Therapy, which focuses on the different parts of the self that make you you. The world around us seems to have grown more and more complex, no matter how hard we try to...
The quality of life today is more associated with what someone is "doing" rather than their actual quality of life. Time and time again I see people complaining about the year they've lost, and though it is a loss, it means nothing if we don't reflect upon it. I feel like everything that isn't considered interesting by the outside world...
I wrote this poem to process the feelings I had for a girl who was three years older than me. I never knew if she liked me or not and was always too afraid to tell her about my feelings, so I wrote. Love is very easy to connect to the unknown, isn't it? In this piece, it's obvious...
This short poem is titled "Spring Comes." It connects to the theme of uncertain times because it uses the metaphor of Spring to talk about perseverance through difficult times in life. During this pandemic, it has seemed like we are all trapped and waiting for better times to finally come in order to live our lives, kind of like how...
I wrote this poem, "The Year of Lead," in late October, a few weeks before the election. At the time, I was aware of the somber mood around campus and in my own life as we experienced political uncertainty in a pandemic. This heavy mood seemed to be a culmination of all the events we experienced in 2020; this poem...