Visual Poetry: Alumni & Current Student Artists
Jewel Tran
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/meloncholygh0st/?hl=en
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@jeweltran2004/featured
Jewel Tran was born and raised in Stockton and grew up in a Vietnamese Buddhist household. She is currently a student in San Joaquin Delta College, studying in studio art. They’re hoping to transfer to a university by next fall and finally live a new life in a town they’ve been wanting to go to. She’s more into working with sculpture and traditional drawing, sometimes photography and writing. Outside of art, there are a lot of things she does on a daily basis such as going to emo shows or video gaming, but she would rather spend her whole life sitting in the grass, whether it be cold or hot out, listening to music for hours on end and just think.
In life, we experience our emotions at times; we collect our worries and fears and allow them to control. We became stagnant, allowing our worries and fears to get in the way of our efforts to achieve our goals and grow as people. We overthink and act without perspective, preventing us from moving forward. Sometimes all it takes to go past our nonsense is to simply stop, let it all out, and feel genuine, pure emotion. The sensation of catharsis doesn’t always come easy– it's an uphill battle of processing negative thoughts and obtaining perspective. In this book piece, aside from mini drawings, you’re reading through my perspective of what it is like living a fearful, hopeless, and lonely teenager. Whether it be family issues, being in love, one-sided friendship, loss, and experiencing anger for the first time. Despite all that, things do get better in the end.
The Loneliness Inside Me Is a Place
Travel Concertina
Paste page, chipboard, collage, scrap paper, found object, acrylic paint and ink markers
4.6” x 3” (closed) / 9” x 3.5” (open)
NFS
Lyrics excerpt from The Loneliness Inside Me Is a Place
— by Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate)
Will I let twenty find me so guarded
Lettered and documented
By meticulous word choice and closed lips
To read like; all things bear this
Purpose or romance
The truth is much more complicated than that
And I am still trying to learn how
Time is a gift as much as it is a burden