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Devon Taylor
Mrs. Wickware
CAA Plus 2
May 16th, 2016

Climbing the Ladder of Artistic Growth

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
-Albert Einstein
As an incoming freshman to the Clayton Arts Academy, I was naive to the what the real
world had to offer, stubborn in my ideas of how work should really be done, and lacking the spark
of creativity that I now hold. In my time in the academy, I have grown to recognize and value the
aspects of life that art brings to us. In addition to expanding my mind to the opinions and ideas of
others, I have educated myself on many important issues that Ive continued to debate, discuss, and
analyze throughout my time as an upper core academy student. Much like Albert Einstein, Ive
grown to understand that anything is possible, no matter who rolls their eyes and sighs when you tell
them that you plan to major in theater, film, or art.
My junior year, the spring play we put on was a little bizarre to say the least. The cast
contained a variety of unique characters, none of which I could really connect to or necessarily saw
myself playing. When my director was doing cold reads, she asked for anyone who could do a
Russian accent. I had dabbled a bit in terms of accents, and there were a few I could do pretty well. I
had tried a Russian accent a few times here and there and figured I could get up and try it, especially
since there weren't many other contenders. I crossed my fingers and hoped that stepping out of my
shell would ultimately reward me.

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After rising to the challenge, and some awkward laughter from those watching, I figured out
that a character like this might be exactly what I needed! I had spent a good portion of my acting life
not believing that I had the right kind of stage presence for comedic roles. I had played so many
generic and smaller parts that I hadn't really had the chance to let loose and make people laugh. This
finally gave me that opportunity, which is exactly what I needed to push myself to my current place.
In order to pursue this, I really had to be determined, not just to perfect the accent, but to
break out of my shell and be comfortable with it. The first few times it was awkward and there were
a lot of words I didn't know how to say in the accent. Once I finally got the hang of it, I felt proud
of myself for accomplishing something I never thought I'd do.
Trying to master a foreign accent in addition to learning and memorizing lines that were just
as unfamiliar to me was difficult at times. I had to make sure I was consistent and that not only did
I remember to maintain the accent but remember to not let it morph into another one. The actual
mastering of the accent wasnt difficult. I had previously done it a couple times as a joke, realized I
actually wasnt half bad at it, and then watched some videos online about Russian accents. Another
part of my character I had to overcome was letting myself be comfortable playing a loud, boisterous
person. Another thing that I had never really done before was stage combat, so my scene where i
bent one of the characters arm back and pushed them onto the floor was very awkward at first.
Once I became adjusted with practice, it looked much more realistic. Letting myself go and being
comfortable with doing these unfamiliar things allowed me to be successful in my role as an actor.
Once the play was said and done, I had never felt so proud of myself. The amount of
compliments and a praise I had received after the show each night and even the weeks following
made me realize that I was actually good at doing what I loved! It was a big boost to helping me

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decide to pursue acting in college and beyond. I had people left and right asking me if I was actually
Russian. People had finally started to notice my talents and accomplishments, and I was glowing
with excitement at the end of each performance. I took that positive energy from the show and put
it into my future work and college essays. My role in "You Can't Take It With You" opened me up
to how much I truly love acting, performing, and creating.
The spring academy project of my senior year is a strong reflection of my leadership work
ethic. For the longest time, I liked being in charge, but didnt know what to do when I was in
charge. When I became a senior in the academy, I knew that I finally had to conquer that fear of
sorts and be the leader I wanted to be. Id heard stories about this slam poetry project since I was a
freshman, and I knew it was going to be a challenge-that I would love. Even in the fall project of
this year I struggled with my leadership role. I focused more on directing than working even though
I so badly wanted to excel in both.
Going into this project knowing exactly what I wanted to get out of it was a huge help. From
day one I took charge, fairly of course, and it was only uphill from there. I was nervous initially
because I knew my group was relying on me and I had to pull through and come out on top or I
would disappoint not only them, but myself. I wanted to make myself proud and work hard and
feel like I worked hard. To do this I really had to give this project my all, and thats exactly what I
did. I went home after intense discussions with my group and pump out words onto paper until
they seemed to flow nicely enough for me to be proud of them. I learned how to be a leader, feel
accomplished, and love people I didnt think Id love.
In the actual process of the project, I made sure to include everyones ideas, as long as they
were useful. In taking charge, I more or less liked to do things my way, but I didnt feel as though I

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was the only one working. Thats how I knew it was a strong group. The first couple of days, I just
sat down with my group and talked to them. I wanted to hear their inputs and views on life, social
issues, and anything else they found interesting. In doing this, I was able to form a bond with them
and realized we were all very similar people with ideas that were as such. For one of our poems, I
simply had everyone give me a story, and combined them into a slam poem I wrote on my own.
This was something I had never really done before, and now that I know I can do it, I feel like I am
capable of so many other tasks!
In addition to going from 10th place to 3rd place on the day of the competition, my group
formed a strong bond and love for each other that I havent felt with any other academy project. I
had also never felt so proud of my own work in a project. Part of me wishes I had covered more
specific topics in my writing and even taken more direction in the physical and performance aspects
of the poetry. There were several poems I saw and wished that I had come up with first. However,
in the whole scheme of things, I wouldnt change what I did. I brought talents I didnt really know I
had to the stage and I had received so much praise and approval from my group. That kind of peer
acceptance was exactly what I needed to push myself through the end of my senior year. The
impact of this project shaped my self-confidence as a student, an artist, and a leader.
My Plus 2 Senior Project was focused on the topic of body positivity. I created a video
compiled of 4 questions answered by about 10 different people. In addition to those questions, I
had my mentor, Susanne Renner, talk about her experience in the modeling industry when she was
younger. She talked about what it taught her about self-acceptance and beauty. After 2 days of
filming, I spent a few weeks editing and compiling it into a 10-minute long video.
In order to do this project, I needed to know a little bit about what it means to be body positive,

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have a set plan in mind for my video, and know what kind of message I wanted to push out to the
public. Not only did I learn how to maneuver the complex and detailed editing program I used, but
I learned from my peers experiences that they shared with me. I also got to learn that everyone has
a different definition of the word beautiful. Upon completing this I learned that I am not alone in
my stance on self-acceptance and body positivity, and that the people who watched my video
agreed and loved it.
In the beginning of this project, I thought I was going to do a fashion show. What I had in
mind was a sort of anti fashion show in which I had volunteers act as models. Instead of having
people announce what each model was wearing, I would have them present different facts about
eating disorders and body image issues within the modeling industry. However, I eventually came to
the conclusion that finding the time to successfully hold an event like that would take the time,
planning, and connections that I didnt have. So, I decided to stay with body image, but go in the
direction of a video. It turned into focusing on the perspective of the general population, or at least
the one that I associate myself with, and what they had to say about body positivity.
I do not regret this project at all because of the skills I attained from it. I have always been
interested in film production, and its been a couple years since I last filmed and edited something. I
learned a lot about what does and doesnt look good on camera, and I learned about how important
it is to advertise when you need volunteers. Two days before my initial filming day, I had 2 set
volunteers for the whole thing. Thanks to some last minute scrounging, I was able to pull together
plenty of volunteers.
What went well was definitely the interviewing portion. There was no doubt in my mind
from the moment I started filming that I would have enough footage. My initial thought was that

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the video would maybe be 5 minutes long. It ended up being double that and I only used a fraction
of the clips I had. I mightve gotten even better answers from my participants had I let them know
the questions ahead of time. In the future, I would also advertise for those volunteers earlier than I
did. I had so many people who wanted to come, but couldnt make it. Had I known that more than
a few days in advance, I wouldve been able to plan for a different day.
My growth as an artist was definitely one of the biggest growths I represented in this. Being
a drama student, it took a lot of thought, planning, creativity, and effort to put together a video like
this. As a student, I think this represents the hardest Ive worked on something in a long time. I was
so motivated because it was something I cared about that captivated my interest, and thats why I
cant wait to do things like this all the time in college.
Ive considered myself a social activist for a couple years now. It was only then when I really
started educating myself on topics involving areas of activism and social justice. Using both my art
and my knowledge of social issues brought my project to where it was. Initially, I had no idea what
subject I wanted to focus on. Body image is something I strongly stand by because of the bullying,
discomfort, and dissatisfaction I have dealt with over the years. To this day I find myself judging
people for how they look and having to remind myself that its not okay to do so. I think this
project really helped me achieve an even level of self-love and respect for others.
I will continue to be the change by educating myself and others and fixing problems when I
see them. When someone is being socially inaccurate or offensive, its hard for me not to get angry
or frustrated with them on the spot. However, its not hard for me to educate them by passing on
fact-supported knowledge on a variety of subjects from racism to gender equality to education. I
have pondered the idea of minoring in womens studies and majoring in Film and Media so I can

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go out into the world and produce films and TV shows that combine comedy with important social
issues and feminism.
Despite the fact that my project strayed drastically from the original plan, and even more
from my final project proposal, it turned out amazing. The positive feedback and praise I have
received in the short time since its been up is astounding. I hope to continue putting together
project like this in the future, not just for school, but for the good of society and myself.
During my time in the academy, I learned that theres a lot more to art than the eye can see.
Obviously, there are the different aspects of it: physical art, photography, theater. But I didnt
realize how much deeper meaning, thought, and hard work goes into art. The arts academy opened
my eyes to a world of art, academics, and social change that I had never seen before. My education
in my time as an academy student gave me the open mindedness and knowledge I needed to truly
become an agent of change. Without these experiences, I would not be able to overcome my
anxieties about the past, the present, and the future, recognize that I am capable of anything I put
the right effort into, and be able to exit high school ready to face the next chapter of my life. That
next chapter is entitled college and the location is the University of California, Irvine.