Slow down. Breathe. Focus. As you watch the wheels spin, concentrate on the calming qualities that they offer. In a school that is harshly plagued with stress, I would like my work to focus on the opposite. Creating these videos help me with to cope with the stress that I’ve experienced throughout my time at Maggie Walker and I hope that you, the viewer, can pause for a moment to take a breathe and focus on being in the moment. Forget the million things constantly rushing through your mind, watch the circles expand and contract, watch the clay rise and fall. Take a minute to forget about stress and anxiety and just focus on the magic. For me, art is a therapeutic method for coping, it’s a time to focus on the task at hand and forget all of the other overwhelming things attacking myself and my peers. I chose to work with clay rather than other media because I wanted to create videos that can loop well and entice the viewer for a long period of time because it’s constantly changing. The feeling of the clay running through my hands reminds me that during this moment, I am in control; the pliability of the medium allows me to mold it into whatever form I can. I also wanted to make work that didn’t require a lot of thinking from the viewer, something that can be watched and reflected upon but was not confusing or hard to follow. Art is not only visual, but also magical and therapeutic.