Intro Blog

    Hey y'all! My name is Brandon. I'm 34 years old and am only a couple terms away from getting my associates degree in Art. I mostly focus on photography and ceramics, but have been doing many mediums of art for a long time. I used to value being self-taught for everything, and actively avoided academia. I used to play a lot of experimental music, but within the last few years I decided to focus on school and everything I have avoided learning. I now have a deep love and appreciation for the world of ceramics, am currently in Ceramics III, and finally own a giant fancy camera that takes eye-watering photographs. Besides art, I also have deep interests in music, motorsports(Formula 1, rally racing, autocross, MX-5 cup, sim racing etc.), computers and technology, vidya games(do not call me a gamer), fostering community and generally trying to make people feel okay with being alive on earth. It's can be a cold, horrible place out there and the only thing that seems to matter sometimes is having good times with decent people. 

    I took this course because I am absolutely illiterate when it comes to marketing myself, my art, or any other aspect of myself, or anything for that matter. I've lived all over the United States, and have had a slew of jobs in wildly different areas, and the worst performances that I ever gave were at jobs that required salesmanship. As we all may know, art is not a money-making degree, and making money is something I have almost zero interest in, but it is necessary to my survival. So here I am in marketing, ready to equip myself with the tools necessary to do what I love while also facilitating a life I want to live. At the same time though, my absolute anti-hero is a total sociopath by the name of Edward Bernays. He is a marketing legend and one of the most morally bankrupt people who ever flew under the public radar in the wake of the things that he helped to accomplish. Besides him being one of the worst people to ever walk this earth(along with Henry Kissenger), he exemplified how group psychology can be leveraged to market and sell any idea as long as it resonated with people. To give a very small example, he used the idea of freedom and liberty to smash the social norm that women should not be seen smoking in public. He orchestrated an event called "Torches of Freedom" for the Lucky Strike corporation. He hired women to walk down a street, lighting up cigarettes and holding up signs stating that they deserved the freedom and liberty to smoke in public just as men were allowed to. As a result, the social paradigm of women smoking changed, but this wasn't to change public perception for the sake of equality.

 

It was to sell more cigarettes.

 

Don't even get my started on Panama. 

 

Anyway, I hope we all have a good time!  

Please enjoy this picture of my cat, Hot Dog. She found me 5 years ago.