Hi my name is Tevin. I am a student at New York City College of Technology. I love to do two things draw and play video games. When I was younger I always loved to watch cartoons, I still do to this day. In fact you could say that cartoons are the very reason that I got into art in the first place. I remember I used to draw my favorite characters over and over again. As I entered high school I had no idea what I wanted to be or what I was gonna go to college for, but did I know that I definitely wanted to be in art. When I took an animation class in my junior year i found exactly what I wanted to do.

I love to draw and the feeling I get after I finish a sketch. It gives me a sense of pride, a feeling of accomplishment, knowing that I created something amazing with my own hands. I also like looking at art seeing what inspires others and what they like to create and the stories that their art can tell. I think that’s why I love things like anime or video games they literally tell a story and sometimes they can do it without words just like a painting.

How do describe my design aesthetic? I really just draw what comes to mind. I don’t usually put a lot of thought into what I’m drawing at first. I just do what comes naturally I guess you could say my process is go with the flow. You could say that I’m a big picture kind of guy. I like to get my overall drawing done first and then put in the details later. When I’m finished I like to make sure of two things: my drawing looks neat and it looks really cool. You could say that’s my aesthetic I like to draw cool things like dragons, ninjas or anything that really peaks my interest like graffiti.

The avatar I chose is a line from one of my favorite anime the symbol above it was a banner that they used in the anime. It’s meant to represent brotherhood. The main character felt that any thing could be done no matter how outrageous or impossible it may seem. I chose it because I really like that way of thinking. The only limits you have are the ones you place on yourself. You’ll never know you can do something unless you try; you’ll never get what you want if your too scared or too lazy to get it. You’re the only thing stopping you. It’s a good source of inspiration if I find myself in a difficult situation.

My avatar could be interpreted in a few different ways. Maybe I like the “keep calm and carry on” meme. to be honest I’m really not. People could see the red skull and think I’m into punk rock or something. You could see it and think I like to make those motivational posters. I guess you could look at it and think a lot of things everything’s open to interpretation just depends on how you look at things.

I think  that my profile will convey a bit of who I am as an artist and a person. I think that it’s a good idea to let people know a little bit about yourself. Being social is apart of being human we all want to communicate and feel like we belong ;maybe if you see a profile picture that interests you you could find out that you and that person could have something in common. I hope that my profile and ePortfolio will get peoples interest and maybe just maybe we could be friends.

Have you ever thought about stopping and looking what’s surrounding you now than what it was long time ago? Time is the key to life, and everything changes because of it, and with just a blink of an eye, the world is not the same anymore. New York City is known as the city that never sleeps, but, things changed dramatically, and when we look at a certain thing, you try to remember what was there before. The “Old” New York was the famous New York many people knew. Buildings were so modern, horses were “taxis”, and picture taking was in black and white. All those things that “Old” New York had is still remembered today when you see the change. So, when I stood in a certain place that I enjoy going, I see the juxtaposition of the “Old” New York, and the “New” New York.

To begin with, I didn’t really think about how New York City was before. You are so use to seeing what there is now, but you do get to remember what was there before things changed. In your neighborhood, you could see that things aren’t the same when time has been passing by, for example the Burger King that you see across the street was a car shop, or the Chase Bank that you go now to deposit money was a junk yard. Where I go, I call it “my” New York, because is a place where now is a park and is just so beautiful because you see both The Brooklyn Bridge, and The Manhattan Bridge. Many people know this place, its called “The Brooklyn Bridge Park”, also know as DUMBO, and it’s a very famous tourist place. When you look at certain things, you see new things, and I saw a lot of new things that were something else long ago. While I was walking, between Water St and Old Fulton St, I saw railroad tracks, all rusty and a good percent was covered with cement and bridge legs. From that moment, I saw my juxtaposition of “Old”  and “New” New York.

Furthermore, I took pictures of these railroads, and I was imagining how beautiful it was to have a train go by here, and under these bridges. When you come across these railroads, you already know that “Old” New York was here, and in my own personal opinion, I wish that the train that passed by here years ago , could have passed by here today. “New” New York, is just cement, with a brick like look, but it’s not the same, and the streets are bumpy and narrow in some ways. One of the Bridge Legs sits on these cements, but not on the railroads, but you could see that trains passed by it. When I saw these railroads, I felt the sound of it, and the feeling of the wind. The noises you hear when a train passes, is just so noisy, fast, and sometimes could be annoying. Now, you don’t hear that noise, all you hear is people, footsteps, wind, and sometimes even silence at night. So, I am not the only one that talks about “Old” New York and how things changed overtime.

Moreover, an author named, Calson Whitehead, has his New York. He wrote a book called,” The Colossus of New York,” and I read a part of ” City Limits”, which describes a little about his New York and juxtaposition of old and new. He tries to give a message to New Yorkers that has remembered how “Old” New York was and how it is today. After reading a part of his book, I started to look more about New York City, and seeing the aesthetic point of views I had, and what he had. “Go back to your old haunts in your old neighborhoods and what do you find, they remain and have disappeared”( Colson Whitehead, City Limits). One of my favorite sayings of Whitehead and it’s what I do sometimes when i cross by something new. It’s a fact that when you go back, you don’t see what you saw before. Like I said before, time is so magical, and “Old” New York was just so unique and ordinary, and now “New” New York, is more modernized and more technology than ever. Need a cab? They are everywhere, you wont miss one, but in the old times, horses was your way back home. So, as you can see, “Old” New York is remembered, and now “New” New York is the big deal.

In addition, when you think about New York City, you obviously talk about the big buildings, the lights, the music, the stores and so on. What is my concern is that I never got to say goodbye to what I saw before. I am not the only one, many people haven’t, as well as Colson Whitehead. DUMBO, is “my” New York, but not the New York that we see today, I want to see that train that goes by Water St, and Old Fulton St, I want to feel the wind, hear the noise. I want to experience that feeling of that train being there, the people in it, how different it would be. Colson Witehead wrote, “ We can never make proper goodbyes. It was your last ride in a Checker cab and you had no warning” (Colson Whitehead, City Limits). He was referring to that one last time you saw your favorite place, and now your thought you would see it again, but it disappeared. Today, New York City is different than ever, and we will never forget how it became this way. Mankind made change happen, and of course time. “New” New York has become the famous city that people around the world come to visit. If you look to other states or other countries, New York City will bet that is more extraordinary than them.

In conclusion, “old” New York will be seen everyday, because “new” New York is still old, but it has changed to be more modernize if you see closely. Goodbye to the things we saw long ago, or wished we did,  and hello to new possibilities. “My” New York will always be there, and I will go by those railroads, because its not going anywhere, its still there, just covered up. If you had the chance to go back through time, maybe a take pic, and see the difference. Of course thats not possible, but both old and new is still there, we are literally looking at it and stepping on it.

Works Cited :

Whitehead, Colson. “City Limits.” From The Colossus Of New York