STILL in MOTION

ONLINE PRESENTATION

Still in Motion Home  //  Leslie Elsasser - Introduction  //  Selina Roman - Mind Currents  //  Christian Cortes

PHOTOGRAPHY
Roxi Cato - US Army  //  Wildalys Class - US Air Force  //  Agustin Collazo Jr. - US Navy and Marine Corps  //  Michael Congdon - US Army  //  Giovanna Delacruz - US Air Force  //  Amanda Dodd - US Army  //  Dawn S. Hargrett - US Navy  //  Evan Fountain - US Air Force  //  Mark Freeman - US Army  //  Robert Kidney - US Coast Guard  //  Mikko Maki - US Marine Corps  //  Alicia Morales - US Army  //  RaeAnne Swanson - US Air Force

VIDEO
James Alexander - US Air Force  //  Wildalys Class - US Air Force  //  Dwight English - US Army  //  Loretta Fields - US Army  //  Mikko Maki - US Marine Corps  //  Matias - US Marine Corps

 

AMANDA DODD - US ARMY

Up on a Sea Wall

When I was younger, I never put much thought into what I wanted to be when I grew up. This was because I thought I would live out my life as a perpetual child. Playing out the multitude of imaginative adventures with all of my make-believe and invisible friends, always leading to the endless happily ever afters. The thought of growing up was never in the forefront of my mind. And yet as magical as an everlasting childhood may seem, the necessity of growing up eventually becomes a brutal fact of life.

I joined the U.S. Army when I was 17 years old and spent twenty years serving. I did a lot of growing up, and yet in more recent years I find myself longing for the imagination and the joy of playing make believe with my friends. Being a part of Breaking Barriers, in some strange way, allowed for me to indulge in my need for rediscovering the adventurous side of my childhood. I was able to reconnect with a part of myself without reservation because I knew I was amongst friends; fellow veterans. To create freely and without reservation was a wonderful experience. I am grateful for them helping to awaken the perpetual child within me and assisting to feed the never satisfied artistic hunger which constantly rumbles inside me.

Up on a Sea Wall takes a place visited many times and opens the dialogue up to the possibility of “more.” More imagination, more to the story, more on the other side of the wall, more to come; from up on the sea wall you can see the possibility of “more.”

AMANDA DODD
US ARMY

 

 

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For more information:
Email Leslie Elsasser at lelsasse@usf.edu

Breaking Barriers is a project by USFCAM in collaboration with the USF School of Art and Art History, with Support from the USF Office of Veterans Success, Community Arts Impact Grant Program of the Arts Council of Hillsborough County, Love IV Lawrence 2020 Waves of Change Grant, and additional support from the ACE Arts for Community Engagement Fund and the Florida Department of State.