Shannon Suhendra Interviewed by Jonah Charlton
Jonah Charlton: What about art and design excites you the most?
Shannon Suhendra: It’s interesting how art can be interpreted in many different ways. How I see it may differ from how other people perceive it and being able to listen to different ideas on what the art means is always eye opening.
JC: When did you first get into art/design? As a child? Only recently?
SS: Unless we count the time when I took a drawing class at age 8 for a month where I just copy cartoon images in front of me, I actually just started getting into art/design this summer when I was trying to build a website. I lacked a lot of creativity so it was hard for me to make the website look interesting. I didn’t know what design was good and I had to take inspiration from other websites. So yeah, taking DSGN 264 is officially the first time I got into art/design.
JC: Changing gears a bit, when it comes to this animation there are so many details to ask about. One thing I’m most curious about is the wording at the top. Where did that idea come from and what do the words mean to you?
SS: A lot of it came from personal experiences. As a freshman last year I was always busy with coursework, worrying about a lot of different things and didn’t have a lot of time to take a break. And especially now with everything online, it’s hard to have a separation between school life and home life. It feels like everything is becoming one thing and can be overwhelming. So I chose to use these words “make TIME for YOURSELF” because I think it’s really important to have self care, take some moment to breathe and, yeah, as those words speak itself…make time for yourself!!
JC: How did you come up with this idea? Did anything about the idea you originally had change throughout the process of creating this piece?
SS: I did thought of putting the texts on top of a (full) normal clock. But then I was kind of struggling with emphasizing the words and making it stand out as I believe it’s the main piece of the poster. So I decided to integrate the texts into the clock and have the clock pointers point to “time” and “yourself” as I think those are the 2 important words.
JC: How did you decide to put the numbers out of order at the bottom of the clock?
SS: I did put numbers 1-7 in order at first but I thought again… and I was like…it doesn’t make sense to put 1-7 as the bottom half of the clock goes from 3-9…but again, it looked kinda boring and I wanted to change something. Then it occurred to me that it doesn’t matter what time of day it is. You can always make time for yourself. So I decided to put the numbers in random order to show that time doesn’t matter. There’s never a time where you can’t make time for yourself even just for a few minutes.
Jonah Charlton Interviewed by Shannon Suhendra
Shannon Suhendra: When did you get into art and why? What do you like about it?
Jonah Charlton: Honestly, I have been drawing for as long as I can remember. I remember scribbling circles on massive sheets of paper as a kid and my mom celebrating the hell out of me. It really came from that where I believed that art could be anything and come from anywhere. And that is what I love about it to this day. I love that it can be anything and everything and you can change it to be whatever you want.
SS: What types of art or design interests you the most? Painting vs drawing vs sculpture? Modern vs contemporary? Etc.
JC: The things that aren’t considered “art” are what interest me the most. Nature, the outdoors, the way the sun hits a puddle… that is the art that interests and inspires my work the most. Not so much in this most recent project but it’s something that always does inspire my more creative and free flowing work.
SS: Moving on to the animation, it is definitely very relevant to the recent election. First, I
would like to ask about your opinion: Why do you think it is important to vote?
JC: It’s important to vote because lives depend on it and the access to basic human rights depend on it. I mean we’re a tad past Election Day — or month, as it should be more aptly referred — but the idea still holds. Go out and vote. Make your voice heard. Stand up for what you believe in, whatever that may be. If your rights aren’t personally on the line, you sure as hell know someone’s who’s are. Go vote for them. Go vote for the voiceless, for those who need their voices lifted. Regardless of the reason you need to tell yourself, please, please just do go out and vote.
SS: I notice that there are no images or drawings at all. What made you decide to use all texts instead of using images?
JC: My goal was simple: combat voter apathy and boost turnout, even if it was just by a single stinking vote. So for me the most effective way to do that was to go simple with clean lines and bold colors. Images just did not work towards my message and I truly believe that in many situations, including here, less is more.
SS: There’s definitely a lot of phrases or excuses people have used to express their thoughts on not voting. What made you decide on these 6 phrases? Have you personally heard some of these excuses from someone you know?
JC: Oh, absolutely. I’ve heard these phrases my whole life from parents, friends, family — you name it, this is something I’ve heard for years. Especially coming from a non-swing state that has voted blue and by a lot every year, people think why vote and voter apathy is a real issue. As a kid, it’d be hard to say I didn’t largely see voting in the same way as it really did not seem all that worth it. So these phrases come from personal experience over a number of years and they’re meant to echo sentiments across times and generations.
SS: What message do you hope to give to people through your poster?
JC: I hope people see there isn’t an excuse. I just hope they go out and vote!! Well…too late now but not in Georgia!