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Yo yo yo home skillets! My name is Catie, and I'm an Art/Anthropology/Spanish student at Pacific University. Art-wise, my main interest is people and portraiture, hence my interest in anthropology. I love taking photos, drawing, printmaking, jewelry-making, etc.- anything creative. I also play the cello, and enjoy bike riding, frisbee, star gazing, and traveling.

I feel like photography is often the most powerful medium, because there's always a greater element of believability to a photograph than there might be in a drawing that's been idealized and/or romanticized. I think that "JR," a French artist who's currently working on a global art project with a TED grant, has definitely figured out how to use the honest power of photography to change the world. He would definitely be my photographic hero, because his images are not only crisp, dramatic and interesting- they're also inspirational to people. He started his current project by pasting larger-than-life posters of peoples' faces all over the world in an attempt to make people think, and to bring awareness to social issues. His "Inside Out" Project (http://www.insideoutproject.net/) is all about encouraging people around the world to do what he's done. On his website, people can upload their own photographic portraits, and he sends each a large poster with that image so that they can then put that poster up in a public place for all to see. In fact, I've already sent in my own photo to him, and I now have a poster roughly 3 by 4 feet tall (see image), that I am looking to post sometime in the near future. JR is my hero because his art is both beautiful and inspirational- it actually encourages people to get involved and feel like they can make a difference. I want to be able to make art that makes people think, and I think JR's project will be a good guiding example for me.