ELIAS'S ARTIST STATEMENT

Working on the walnut way project was a rollercoaster ride to begin with due to the fact that I didn’t really understand the concept of the project but as time went on it became a very good experience. This was my first time ever creating a blog and also my first time working with any kind of video editing software’s, which I found interesting due to my admiration of video and movie directors. I really appreciate the opportunity to be able to work on a project like this and I look forward to visiting the walnut way office after school is over on my leisure time.

I guess at the beginning of my research, I was more concerned about the how much material I actually collected and less about the quality of the material. But during my visits to the walnut way office, I gathered that there was more to the neighborhood than just the house.

As time went by I realized that I wasn’t devoting enough time to the project because of my personal activities and watched other class members get involved and I was amazed at the kind information they found, and this was when I felt more attached to the project.

I went about this project by basically looking at what the walnut way community could potentially turn into, which would be historical and also trendy. This is why I decided to tackle an area such as the current developments and future proposes structures in the neighborhood. Another reason I decided to choose this area was because growing up I was always into constructions and I always thought a community was always judged by the kind of buildings located within it, which is not always the case, and a prime example of this was the Walnut way community.

During my research, my goal was not to get too attached to the community, so I could get a clear perception of what the final project will look like to someone who had not visited the community and also how much information they would grasp by just taking a look at our online archive.

Some ways by which I did my research was by visiting the area randomly and trying to find changes such as new constructions which could possibly give the neighborhood a new look in the near future and also to check for other uses of land apart form housing such as the rain gardens. I also took a trip to the community during an event and I got a chance to take pictures while being showed the neighborhood which made me feel like a tourist and this helped me get a clear view of how different groups of people might view that community.

I also used the internet as a major tool in my research because the aided me in finding more information such as proposed plans issued by developers within the Milwaukee area.

During my research I encountered problems such as scheduling times to dedicate to the project and I also found out that there were not too materials which documented the development of the community which people could access for personal knowledge.