[Im]Perfect Life

Finding lines, quotes or stories through the newspaper really gets your imagination going. You make up stories about events and people. I particularly enjoy imagining what a person’s life may be like. By putting together different quotes and pictures from the newspaper I created a story about a teenage girl whose parents have a lot of money, but their job makes them move around a lot. I have a clipping of a crossword puzzle and it’s filled out with several state names such as Hawaii, Alaska, Missouri, Oklahoma and Ohio. I also cut out quotes, one said, “In the end, people are still uptight and nervous…” and another said “talk runs hot and heavy” and the last quote I cut out is set up as though it’s on a computer screen, and it says “We’re retiring to Florida and buying a yacht.” After thinking about what kind of story or life can I create out of these quotes I decided to create a perfectly imperfect life, through a young girl’s eyes. With this in mind I went to the homes for sale in the newspaper and found six homes I imagined this girl and her family had lived in. I picked the million dollar houses, the houses you wished you could live in. Then at the top of the newspaper, where it shows which section and what page you’re on, I saw the word Life with a 5D next to it. After flipping back a couple of pages I saw that it said Life 3D and I instantly cut it out. When I finished cutting and gluing I realized that without even really trying I had made a story, about a teenage girl with a life that seems so perfect to the outside world, but in reality was so imperfect. The imperfectly perfect life behind mansions and yachts….all she saw was the dysfunction.