We Are What We Choose To SeeFour years ago, Julia Kuo moved from Los Angeles to Cleveland. To her surprise, she quickly fell in love. Like most people swept up by romance, she wanted the whole world to know why she always was walking around with a grin on her face for no apparent reason. At 25, she is a talented artist who already has illustrated several children's books and numerous stories for The New York Times. Her heart speaks through her art, so it made sense — to her, anyway — to start posting online sketches of her beloved. Her blog — at http://JuliaInCleveland.tumblr.com — is titled "100 Days in Cleveland." It is a valentine to the object of her affection, which happens to be my city. Every day, she posts another drawing, along with a short narrative, of something she cherishes about the Cleveland area. "I wanted visual reminders of what I love about living here," she told me. "I'm an explorer by nature, and there is so much in Cleveland to see — and to love." Kuo is a first-generation American, born to Taiwanese parents. She came to Cleveland after American Greetings offered her a job before she even had graduated from Washington University. She worked as a designer at American Greetings for 2 1/2 years and then decided it was time to shed the security of a steady job and pursue drawing full time. She supports herself as a freelance illustrator. The blog, she said, is her chance to live every artist's dream. With one big caveat. She remembers an art professor who once said, "Someone should pay me to draw everything I see." "I would love that," Kuo said laughing, "but I don't think that job actually exists." Every day, she sketches a scene from Cleveland in a Moleskine notebook, scans the drawing into her computer and uses Photoshop to paint it. Then it goes up on her blog. "Posting the paintings online seemed natural," she said. "Nothing will happen if my drawings sit in my book." I discovered Kuo's blog about a week ago through a friend and was immediately hooked.
The friend who told me about Kuo, Diane Linch, who is also an artist and has become a fan of the blog, describes Kuo's paintings as "honest, not cute." Perfect description. They are simple and true. They also telegraph a steadfast gratitude. Kuo is telling a love story, one sketch at a time, capturing the montage of tradition and quirkiness that makes so many of us dog-loyal to this town. Kuo's drawings are also a reminder of the importance of focus. We are what we choose to see. I look at her sketches and think about a recent conversation I had with one of our kids, when I said, "We can have a good day or a bad day, depending on which list we want to keep." I like Kuo's list. A lot. Her blog is full of images unique to Cleveland: Loganberry Books on Larchmere Boulevard, Hot Sauce Williams on Carnegie Avenue and Capitol Theatre in the Gordon Square Arts District. Beneath a drawing of La Bendicion restaurant on West 105th Street, she wrote: Not a single person spoke English and everyone turned around when we walked in, but we quickly found that the staff (was) all very sweet — I had the urge to call them "auntie." Kuo also captures the universal moments of life in its minutiae. Two men play chess outside a cafe. A friend's black-eyed dog, named Lucy, settles in for a nap. A train bullets toward downtown Cleveland. Kuo wrote this under two paintings of young children splashing in afternoon puddles: Every day around 4pm we start to hear yelling and screaming from the parking lot behind our apartment. There's a group of elementary school kids ranging in color, size, and energy levels who play — really play — outside. They charge around with huge sticks ad fallen branches, have territorial disputes, and splash each other in the enormous muddy sink hole that fills our lot whenever it rains. Surely, some of Kuo's neighbors looked at that same scene and saw only mess and noise. Always, it's about focus — and what we choose to see. Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and an essayist for Parade magazine. To find out more about Connie Schultz (cschultz@plaind.com) and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2011 CREATORS.COM
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