Welcome to my digital haven!
Here is where art, words, and creativity converge. As an interdisciplinary artist and writer, this platform serves as a curated archive of my diverse projects, ranging from multimedia artworks to compelling narratives. Dive into my portfolio to explore the intricate tapestry of my creative expressions. Additionally, I will offer my expertise as a developmental editor in the future, providing guidance and refinement for fellow writers seeking to hone their craft. Whether you're here to admire, collaborate, or connect, I invite you to journey through these digital corridors and discover the boundless possibilities of artistic exploration.
Was the past honestly the best? Cause I just wanna see what's next. Best moment is yet to come - Yet to Come, BTS
This is Me!
Hello World! Liyah here!
I call upon
the collective writers
under the
pseudonym
Erin Hunter, who
fueled
my love
for animals.
I call upon
the writers
of the Disney Renaissance
who fueled
my interest
in movie production.
I call upon
the manga and anime creators,
the ones for love,
the ones for action,
the ones for thriller, and all, who
fueled my desire to
make mature and complex plots.
I call upon
the music producers
- K-pop, R&B, Rap, Alternative -
who’s lyricism stays
on repeat in my head
and boosts my mood
and energy
My writing ancestors,
their powers
run through my veins
and compels
my pen to scribble
impact the world
grace it joyful noise
Create inclusive and comforting
Communities
Free of judgment, open to discussions.
This is me.
INTRODUCTION:
I am an Interdisciplinary Arts major at UW Bothell’s School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences or IAS. For an IAS student to graduate, they must demonstrate their understanding of the five IAS Learning Goals through the assignments they completed throughout their education at UW. The five Learning Goals are Writing and Communication, Interdisciplinary Research and Inquiry, Critical and Creative Thinking, Diversity and Equity, and Collaboration and Shared Leadership. Those who can showcase their skills concerning the Learning Goals prove that they succeeded in the IAS mission of inclusivity, which is to essentially mold students into people who can see the power imbalances in society, get to the root of why these imbalances exist, and collaboratively find solutions for change despite peer differences with arts and science. I naturally lean towards the Writing and Communication IAS learning goal since writing has always been my strong suit and preferred way to explain and examine big, complex ideas. However, throughout my undergraduate education, I was challenged to tackle other communication forms while expanding my thinking on the human experience that satisfies the IAS Learning Goals.
Writing and Communication
To effectively exhibit their completion of the Writing and Communication objective, an IAS student must be able to communicate their ideas to a diverse audience with claims and evidence clearly and concisely through various writing styles, including presentations. I want to highlight an analysis essay I wrote for the BISMCS 333 Media and Communication Studies class I took in the Fall of 2022 to show my Writing and Communication skills. In this essay, “Football and Meanings,” I analyze how American football is a prestigious form of masculinity and patriotism, making kneeling during the National Anthem an act against patriotism and the American social hierarchy. I use Colin Kaepernick, a former San Francisco 49ers football quarterback, as a primary example. He had lost his place as a football player after kneeling during the National Anthem in protest of police violence against black people in 2017. Tiny but intricate pieces make up this essay, and I reference the textbook Media & Society: Power, Platforms, and Participation (Second Edition) by Nicholas Carah and The Gramscian Theory created by Antonio Gramsci to define keywords such as hegemony, a word that describes who runs the society. I also trace the relationship between America and black people and the similarities between football and the military concerning black men. I highlight this as my strongest show of completing the Writing and Communication objective due to its complexity of weaving so many sources together to make my point understandable to a broad audience in an academic essay format.
INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH AND INQUIRY
The Interdisciplinary Research and Inquiry objective entails that IAS students can research given topics properly, generate questions, and use strong sources to answer their questions while comparing them to present issues and display their results. The professors gave me many sources for analysis in my classes. However, it was up to the student to search for more information if they needed more clarification on a topic. There is one project I had where I had to do all of the research on my own with the help of two other classmates: the “New Curriculum” presentation from the BIS 300 Interdisciplinary Inquiry course. The slide presentation is one of the strongest examples of my Interdisciplinary Research and Inquiry skills because I learned how to read through biases and find reliable sources online and through library resources. With this background, my group discussed how we could improve a new curriculum to support American students in their early years of learning using ideas from three top-performing countries: Finland, Sweden, and Australia. After compiling a few techniques they use, my group created a slide presentation and wrote speeches to speak to the class about our findings. Through this project, I was able to engage in how the U.S. and other countries educate their youth and stories about the disparities within schools across the nation.
CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING
I took quite a few art classes, and from these classes, I learned just how impactful art can be. Art could be therapeutic and an emotional outlet for a community. It could liberate and address social issues. It can also be a talking point that moved people to protest for change and reflection, ideas reminiscent of the Critical and Creative Thinking objectives. In turn, I also learned how art spaces were, and still are, considered prestigious and dominated by one group of people throughout history. Art is also a broad term that could range from drawing to a random object in your home if you make it be. I chose a rather traditional form of art, a charcoal drawing I made inspired by Toni Morrison’s novel Song of Solomon for the BIS 387 Women Literature course as my Critical and Creative Thinking example. The technique I used, charcoal, which I learned how to use in the BISIA 340 Visual And Media Arts Workshop course, allowed me to study anatomy and relearn why I used to draw when I was younger. This assignment, “Step out of the Page,” connects to the Critical and Creative Thinking objective because my piece visualizes a character realizing his social position by tracing his past to understand his present. It also makes me reflect on my social position and reminds me that we should let people exist outside the dominant group of people’s eyes. They should be allowed to tell their own stories and how one person can be that push for multiple voices within a community and make change. Toni Morrison’s story inspired me as a black female writer myself. I want to achieve great heights like her, inspire more diverse writers, and get people thinking more critically about our world. One of my goals in life is to be a part of a creative team behind a beloved show or movie, so I am always watching videos about the entertainment industry and audience reviews.
DIVERSITY AND EQUITY
Every class I took had a rather diverse roster of people we’d study about, I’d say, and each one seemed to push the need for Diversity and Equity outside the classroom. Perhaps my most impactful class for Diversity and Equity skills was the BIS 310 Women, Culture, and Development. Here, I first encountered the idea of intersectionality, how people are not one identity but a part of many, and how everyone should be open-minded and not assume something is true about people based on one part of them. I highlight my “Final Q2: Feminism & Women’s Collective Resistance” essay as an example to demonstrate my Diverse and Equity skills effectively. It fits this objective’s criteria because I read and watched films of women all around the world fighting for equal rights in various conditions and applied them to this essay. This artifact connects to the objective’s need for students to understand and recognize power imbalances among and between communities and how to transform them because I had to examine these unique conditions and how women exercise their agency. While writing this essay, it appears that the best way to “transform” the power imbalances among men and women worldwide is not to assume that all women outside the West are the same and are helpless and treat all women with respect.
Patriarchy dehumanize women with violence. Despite society being against them, women fight back and find ways to exercise their agency....While feminism depends on women’s movements, not all women’s movements are feminists, but both can make significant improvements to women’s lives. - excerpt from “Final Q2: Feminism & Women’s Collective Resistance”
COLLABORATION AND SHARED LEADERSHIP
Mastering the Collaboration and Shared Leadership IAS objective ensures that graduates are able to perform tasks with a group of people. It is necessary to be able to collaborate with your co-workers and make sound decisions for the betterment of yourself and your team. The BISIA 401 Literary and Arts Editorial Board course and its creation of the 2024 issue of the Literary and Arts journal Clamor is an example of my Collaboration and Shared Leadership goal completion. This project has been a different learning experience for me compared to others. It is much more hands-on, interactive, and student-led, thanks to the smallness of the class and its subject. In a sense, it is like that of a school club. You don’t just sit and have a teacher talk at you from a podium; everyone can talk, and there is no judgment as you work towards the same goal. The Clamor journal’s newest issue exhibits my Collaboration and Shared Leadership skills because, in the class, everyone was a part of something bigger than themselves and their grade. If even one of us decided not to come to class or not do our share of work, it set the entire team back. I learned to take care of my responsibilities and be a reliable classmate, taking notes for the class, doing my share of the work, reading submissions and sending out acceptance and rejection letters, ensuring I was always present, and paying close attention to discussions and how I wrote the notes.
CONCLUSION:
All in all, my time at UW was well spent. I learned a lot about various art, writing styles, and ways of researching, as well as how to take responsibility, collaborate, be more kind, open-minded, and empathetic, and how all of that can impact those around you with the pillars of the IAS Learning Goals. I will apply everything I learned to the real world and help develop my craft to be the change I want to see.
May 4, 2024
Dear Future Liyah,
It’s been a while. I don’t think I’ve written anything to you since that psychology class we took our senior year in high school. Well, I’m back with another letter. As I write this, I am in the last quarter of my Bachelor’s Degree at UW Bothell. We had such high hopes for our future, and I remember hoping we’d achieve a lot in a few years. We’re still not fluent in Japanese, we’re still working on the same book, and we do not have any form of writing job. If we told our high school self that, they’d probably be disappointed and wonder what happened. But looking at our life like that undermines our incredible journey of personal growth and our significant achievements so far. Whatever is going on in your life right now, whether or not you’ve made moves to reach our goal or even made new ones, I’m here to remind you of the remarkable journey we’ve been on.
I think our high school self underestimated the challenges we’d face in the path we chose. Breaking into the art and writing world is no easy feat, and it’s not a quick route to financial stability. As my graduation draws near, I feel anxious and wonder what’s next. We’ve pursued education this far because we enjoy learning new things and hope our knowledge will give us an edge in any job we land. Yet, a part of me often wonders if I should be pursuing something different, something more. I need to remind myself that a Bachelor’s Degree is a significant achievement in its own right and, and at this moment, the highest level of education in our family.
A novelist.
A journalist.
An editor.
A screenwriter.
Our goals were never as concrete as others, but we weren’t aimless either. Ultimately, the goal is to entertain people and give people a reason to smile and a break from their daily troubles. However, because we saw ourselves doing so many things, we sometimes wondered if we could achieve any of them. Maybe we were being too ambitious. I’m sure you figured it all out by now, and if not, I hope you’re still trying. We can be all we want to be, and we deserve to be all we want to be. UW Bothell was the right choice. If we didn’t continue college, we wouldn’t have the foundation we have now for our goals. Remember, our potential for future goals is limitless, and that should fill you with hope and motivation.
We aspired to be a novelist, and UW Bothell has equipped us with a diverse range of storytelling styles and a strong creative mindset. We can craft a story in poems or a letter, from a mundane object, a daydream, a speculation, and more. We’re allowed to write in bursts of energy if that’s when our best work emerges. Nonfiction is a realm of creativity, as there’s room for stories in everything we interact with. Writing in 1st person can be just as impactful, if not more, than 3rd person. Even drawing and photography can be a form of storytelling if we’re patient enough to see it through. The classes at UW Bothell have expanded the horizons of our page. Our high school self might be disappointed because our books aren’t published, but we have three art pieces published in a literary and art journal. Remember “A Speculative Walk to Idun,” we wrote for BIS 490 Art Culture Work, and Change? It’s a fusion of poetry, speculation, creative nonfiction, and even photography about our visit to Bruun Idun, the Northwest Troll, and it’s our first piece to get published in Clamor. I believe the piece perfectly captures the joyous adventure it was to get there and the moral the artist of Idun wanted visitors to ponder.
We wanted to be a journalist, and we had to think like one for a class. In creating the “Football and Meanings” essay for BISMCS 333 Media and Communication Studies, we had to learn to look past the bigger picture and understand how the bigger picture came to be. Football is a staple in American culture, but why? What does it represent? Former football player Colin Kaepernick kneeled during the National Anthem, cut ties with football, and the media labeled him as a Black Lives Matter movement figure. Why? How did his appearance change because of that? What does each change mean, and why? Asking these questions while writing this essay made us think like a journalist and a marketer. We learned the idea of Media Representation, how media show people, concepts, and objects to us and make us perceive things a certain way. We learned about hegemony and how a dominant group of people controls media representation. Although it was a struggle to combine so many concepts and articles together, this essay and the class were valuable learning experiences that enriched us and made us reflect on how we took in media. It was an enjoyable introduction to concepts that would aid us in future courses, and for that, we should be grateful.
We stepped into the role of an editor when we enrolled in the BISIA 401 Literary and Arts Editorial Board course and contributed to the creation of the 2024 issue of Clamor. We became a part of something larger than ourselves and learned to collaborate with a team all while enjoying diverse interpretations of art. We took on significant responsibilities like reviewing submissions in a timely manner, and being there for meetings or promotion events of which could make or break the team’s progress. We were part of the Clamor Editorial Board for two quarters, and if our class schedule allowed it, I would have stayed for the last quarter. This experience was fun and laid the groundwork for effective collaboration in future group projects, which I hope we’ll have the opportunity to contribute to.
Lastly, we wanted to be a screenwriter. We didn’t write any scripts in a professional format, but we were able to learn and analyze other aspects of movie and video production. Working on the “Anxiety-Driven” video in BISIA 344 Video Art allowed us to simultaneously be the storyboard artist, director, narrator, composer, and actress. Future Me, you might look back at the video and feel second-hand embarrassment. You might see us acting and recall how often we laughed and had to retake the shot. Or how we didn’t cut away from a scene quickly enough and allowed the audience to see the beginning of an awkward smile despite the scene needing to be sad. Honestly, I understand, and if I had more time, I would try to retake those scenes over again. But now we have a deeper understanding of how difficult it is to make content and even more respect for those who make 2 hours of content. We’ll be an even stronger asset to a production crew once we get our certificate in screenwriting because we could also aid in the video editing process if necessary.
Maybe we can’t say that we achieved everything that our high school self wanted us to, but I think we collected some decent skills that will help us when we do eventually get there. We improved our writing skills, now know more directions we can take with our stories, and have a few publications under our name. We can look at the media critically like a journalist, know the importance of teamwork, and know how to video edit. That’s simplifying all that we’ve done at UW Bothell, of course, but I think it’s good to at least note things that are more in line with our goals. We have a lot of tricks up our sleeve, and the next step for us from here is to realize more of our potential and learn more through internships and jobs with some focus on writing and art.
We have big dreams, Future Me, and they’re overwhelming. I won’t pressure you with deadlines to check off everything we want to do, like our high school self. Wherever you are on the journey to reach our dreams, I hope you’re happy and remember to relax and enjoy the little things in life.
Sincerely,
Liyah
Thanks for sticking around for this long! Here is an archive of pieces I worked on as an Interdisciplinary Arts major!
Artifact 1:
Murry, Liyah. “Football and Meanings Essay.” BISMCS 333. Media and Communication Studies, Professor Susan Harewood, Fall 2022.
Overall, Murry explains how American football is a prestigious form of masculinity and patriotism. As a result, kneeling during the National Anthem is an act against patriotism and the American social hierarchy. She defines and dissects the concepts of patriotism, masculinity, and hegemony and why these words mean what they mean in American society with multiple sources. Sources include the textbook Media & Society: Power, Platforms, and Participation (Second Edition) by Nicholas Carah and The Gramscian Theory created by Antonio Gramsci. The essay focuses on former San Francisco 49ers football quarterback Colin Kaepernick, before and after his kneeling police brutality protest in 2017, and how society’s view of him changed.
The “Football and Meanings Essay” was my first essay at UW, and it is easily the most challenging essay I have ever written. I had to juggle several ideas and sources. It was also the longest and most professional essay I have ever written, and I am proud to say that, despite some issues, I got full marks on it. Because of its complexity, this piece covers 4 of the 5 IAS learning goals: Critical and Creative Thinking, Writing and Communication, Collaboration and Shared Leadership, and Interdisciplinary Research and Inquiry. Although the professor gave much of the sources in this piece to the class, I also did more research on my own and collaborated with classmates to clarify briefly touched ideas.
Artifact 2:
Murry, Liyah, et al. “New Curriculum.” BIS 300. Interdisciplinary Inquiry, Professor Keith Nitta, Fall 2022.
Collaborating with two other students, Murry gathers information on three of the top countries in education, Sweden, Australia, and Finland, to figure out how their students have the highest test scores as listed on the OECD website. With this information, she and her group strategized how they could apply some of their teaching methods to American schools to improve student learning, results presented as a Google Slides presentation.
I included this artifact because it was my first important group project at UW Bothell. This project was a fun opportunity to see how other countries operate their schools and how different they are from America. It also taught me how to conduct research on the UW database and practice public speaking, which I can always improve on. This piece fits all the IAS learning objectives because I had to conduct research, generate a question, answer it, and present it to a diverse audience while working with my peers.
Artifact 3:
Murry, Liyah. “Jane Analysis Paper.” BIS 347. History of American Documentary Films, Professor Samuel Yum, Fall 2022.
Murry argues that the documentary Jane, a biographical film by Brett Morgen about Jane Goodall, a scientist who studied chimpanzees, is an aspiring observational expository story told on screen. The conclusion of Murry’s “Jane Analysis Paper” is defined by documentary categories in Bill Nichols’s “Introduction to Documentary Third Edition textbook.” Interviews of Brett Morgen and Jane Goodall by POV Magazine, Screen Daily, and the New York Times aided Murry’s claim.
I included this film analysis in my portfolio because it was the first essay I wrote at UW reviewing a film. It is also the result of constant practice of analyzing past films in this class and the symbol of enjoyment I felt in this class. This piece fits the Critical and Creative Thinking and the Writing and Communication IAS learning objectives because I had to analyze and connect multiple readings with a film and explain how they fit together on paper.
Artifact 4:
Murry, Liyah. “UW Creative Nonfiction Portfolio.” BISIA 311. Creative Writing: Prose, Professor Dana Middleton, Winter 2023.
Murry puts together a collection of her best creative pieces, inspired by her life experiences, shaped with the help of writing exercises and experimental prompts. Pieces include: “A Day at Jamba,” a short story focusing on one of Murry’s experiences with her co-worker and a customer at her smoothie job. “Band Kid” examines Murry’s journey into becoming a clarinet player through grade school. “Band Kid Part 2: For Granted” speculates how Murry’s high school band teacher felt during auditions for Wind Ensemble, the highest band level. “A Series at SeaWorld: Think of the Orcas” is a reflection and a comic page of Murry’s visit to SeaWorld and her observations of the orcas. “Broken Dreams” is a letter to an old high school friend reflecting on why they don’t talk anymore. And lastly, a Zuihitsu poem, a reflection poem with random organization, with sections “A Recent Conversation I had with a Classmate,” “My Thoughts on a Recent Assignment,” and “A Childhood Friend.”
Nonfiction was always my least favorite genre, but these pieces and the class experience taught me that there is still room to be creative when telling a true story. When writing about yourself or others, you should still consider them as developed characters with a voice in a world, just like a fictional character. At the same time, the story doesn’t have to be a narrative but a poem or comic. Writers can draw creativity from real-life experiences. Thus, this artifact is a Critical and Creative Thinking and Writing and Communication objective.
ARTIFACT 5:
Murry, Liyah. “Reaching for Peace.” BISIA 319. Interdisciplinary Arts, Professors Amaranth Borsuk, Anida Yoeu Ali, and Naomi Macalalad Bragin, Winter 2023.
Murry’s “Reaching for Peace” is a readymade installation constructed from polyester fiber, plaster, paper clips, a jewelry box, and a phone flashlight. It is supposed to represent the struggle to obtain inner peace, an individual reaching for peace in a clouded world or within their mind. They are close to touching peace, the jewelry box, but are also far away and still have a few prickly obstacles, the paper clips, that might deter them from happiness.
This piece represents the different approaches to art I experienced in this class with three unique professors. Many of the approaches we took in this class, like creating a readymade, would be overlooked by the average person. I never would have seen art in the everyday things around me until I took this class and made an art piece out of it. It was a fun experience, more so when I witnessed classmates’ work — a Critical and Creative Thinking objective artifact.
Artifact 6:
Murry, Liyah. “Final Q2: Feminism & Women’s Collective Resistance.” BIS 310. Women, Culture, and Development, Professor Julie Shayne, Spring 2023.
In this essay, Murry explains that feminism can be a women’s movement for change, but it does not mean all women’s movements are feminists. References used include films Made in India: SEWA in Action by Patricia Plattner, Maquilapolis: City of Factories by Vicky Funari and Sergio De La Torre, and readings Aili Mari Tripp’s “The Evolution of Transnational Feminisms,” “Parar para Avanzar: Feminist Activism in 2019 Latin American Mobilizations” by Erika Márquez-Montaño, and Carolyn Tuttle’s “Are the Maquilas Sweatshops?”
The class from which this essay came from differed from others regarding writing assignments. I wasn’t allowed to use direct quotes from any of the sources I used. I had to clarify that I understood what the source was saying by paraphrasing while connecting it to the prompts. I struggled to construct this essay the most, but still managed a decent grade. Moreover, this class taught me issues women face worldwide, how they fought against it, and how everyone should be open-minded and not assume something is true about people based on one part of them. This essay is an artifact that satisfies the Critical and Creative Thinking and Writing and Communication IAS objectives.
Artifact 7:
Murry, Liyah. “The Most Tragic Character.” BISCLA 384. Literary and Popular Genres, Professor David S. Goldstein, Spring 2023.
In this essay, Murry defines what it means for a play to be considered a tragedy, analyzes characters from three modern plays, and argues why one character’s story is the most tragic. The plays and characters she discusses are the four-membered Tyrone family in A Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill, Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, and Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. By Murry’s definition of “tragedy,” which is a story that reflects human suffering and makes the audience pity or sympathize with a character, she concludes that A Streetcar Named Desire’s Blanche is the most tragic character out of all three plays.
When people think of tragedies, they might automatically think of Shakespeare, which was true for me. Reading and watching tragedies of this time was a pleasant experience, as was writing about the characters. This assignment aligns with the video essays of media I like watching online in my free time and satisfies the Critical and Creative Thinking, writing, and Communication IAS objectives.
Artifact 8:
Murry, Liyah. “Clamor Record Notes.” BISIA 401. Literary And Arts Journal Editorial Board, Professor Ching-In Chen, Fall 2023.
This piece contains Murry’s notes from her time as an editor and record keeper for UW Bothell’s Literary and Arts Journal, Clamor. The notes are organized by dates, with the most recent notes at the top. Notes include the editor teams that dictated who editors would collaborate with for specific tasks, the list of classes each editor would visit to present the journal, the number of journals distributed, the criteria the editors used to go over submissions, promotion flyer samples, and authorized areas editors could post flyers and more.
The Literary and Arts Journal Editorial Board is a small class that consists of about 12 students who take part in putting together a journal that showcases current UW students, faculty, alumni, and community members’ artwork, whether it is a short story, a poem, photography, a drawing, painting, or video. I took this class to experience all art ranges and understand what went into creating a journal. The class was very student-driven and hands-on. Each quarter, the class focussed on different aspects of the journal. In the Fall, the focus was marketing, getting the word out about Clamor, handing out the past issue of the journal for inspiration, and collecting submissions. Two record keepers were responsible for taking notes for the class, and I was the Lead Record Keeper. I always had to be present and pay close attention to discussions and how I wrote the notes. This artifact satisfies the Writing and Communication objective and, as the class relied on each other, the Collaborative and Shared Leadership objectives.
Artifact 9:
Murry, Liyah. “A Speculative Walk to Idun.” BIS 490 Art, Culture Work, and Change, Professor Jed Murr, Fall 2023.
Blending poetry, speculation, nonfiction, and photography, Murry tells a short story about her walk with her mom, younger sister, and miniature poodle to visit Idun the Northwest Troll, a West Seattle tourist spot. She imagines a life the wooden troll might live if she were real.
In this class, we worked a lot on creating stories and adding additional commentary to existing art pieces and how impactful doing so can be to stir community discussions for possible change. While I don’t believe my short story will create a stronger urgency in caring for marine wildlife, I had a fun experience getting to the tourist spot and writing about it. This piece is also special because I got it accepted in the 2024 issue of UW Bothell’s Literary and Arts journal, Clamor.
Artifact 10:
Murry, Liyah. “Step out of the Page.” BIS 38. Women And American Literature, Professor Georgia M. Roberts, Winter 2024.
Toni Morrison’s novel Song of Solomon inspires this charcoal drawing by Murry. In her artist statement, she says that her goal was to capture the turmoil the main character, Milkman, felt throughout the book. Milkman did not know who he was and went along with the words of others to define him. However, after a string of events, he sought to step out of the story others wrote for him and find his own story. She references the academic paper “A Study of Milkman’s Growth in Song of Solomon From Freud’s Personality Theory” by Ge Jian, Cheryl Wall’s “Toni Morrison, Editor and Teacher,” and Toni Morrison’s Playing in the Dark.
This class reminded me that we should let people exist outside the dominant perspective and allow them to tell their own stories. One person can push for multiple voices within a community and make the change. As a black female writer, Toni Morrison’s story inspired me, and I would like to achieve great heights like her. I categorize this artifact as a Critical and Creative Thinking and a Writing and Communication IAS objective piece.
Artifact 11:
Murry, Liyah. “Weekly Gesture Drawings.” BISIA 340. Visual And Media Arts Workshop, Professor Gary Carpenter, Winter 2024.
This artifact is a collection of Murry’s human figure drawings from her Visual and Media Arts Workshop class up to her final project. Most drawings are charcoal, but some are in black ink, pencil, and pen. Some depict the whole body, while others focus on parts of the body, such as faces or the hands.
I used to draw a lot but stopped once I picked up writing. This class was an excellent way to reintroduce the subject and remember why I enjoyed doing it. I learned how to draw with a variety of tools and with new techniques. A Critical and Creative Thinking objective.
Artifact 12:
Murry, Liyah. “Anxiety-Driven,” BISIA 344 Video Art, Professor Carrie Bodle, Winter 2024.
Murry’s “Anxiety-Driven” is a self-directed and edited 2-3 minute video about trying to grow up within a metaphor about driving a car. Some visuals consist of Murry acting out her anxiety when trying to start the car in the rain and mustering up the courage at home, twiddling her keys. The audio consists of Murry’s voice-over and her playing a low, melancholy tune on a clarinet.
I have always watched videos about what goes into making videos or movies but have never attempted to make one of my own until this class. Inspiration for this video came from an old poem I wrote. I was often anxious while getting used to a new system, but the outcome wasn’t bad. I learned a new skill of visualizing the words I would put on a page. I remember drawing up the storyboard twice because it was difficult trying to come up with visuals that complimented the poem, but with advice from class, I was able to settle on acting out the poem on camera. It was hard acting and directing at the same time. Aside from the editing, the most challenging part was voicing over the video. At first, I had my sister do the voice-over because I didn’t particularly like how I sounded, but my sister lacked the experience I had, and it was evident in her voice-over. So, in the end, I had to do the voice-over. Both times, it wasn’t easy getting the audio. I had to ensure the audio didn’t peak, and several retakes occurred. This artifact is my final piece to satisfy the Critical and Creative Thinking IAS objectives.
Artifact 13:
Murry, Liyah, et al. “Clamor Literary and Arts Journal” BISIA 401 Literary and Arts Editorial Board, Professor Ching-In Chen, Spring 2024.
This artifact is Clamor's physical journal, which collects various art pieces, including poetry, short stories, photography, digital art, and more. It is the finished product of Murry's time as an editor in the BISIA 401 Literary and Arts Editorial Board class.
The Literary and Arts Journal Editorial Board is a small class that consists of about 12 students who take part in putting together a journal that showcases current UW students, faculty, alums, and community members’ artwork, whether it is a short story, a poem, photography, a drawing, painting, or video. I took this class to experience all art ranges and understand what went into creating a journal. The class was very student-driven and hands-on. Each quarter, the class focussed on different aspects of the journal. In the Fall, the focus was marketing, getting the word out about Clamor, handing out the past issue of the journal for inspiration, and collecting submissions. In the Winter, editors would look through all the submissions and discuss which pieces would featured in the journal, the physical and online version. Editors also provide extra aid to artists who they believe would be a good fit for the journal with minor changes if the artist also seeks it. Finally, in Spring, editors work with a publishing company to combine all the pieces, making necessary edits to fit the art pieces on the page and market the journal. I only stayed for the Fall and Winter quarters, but I have fond memories. I would have stayed the whole year if my class schedule had been different.
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