"Framing Choice" Postcard Set

Description:

Set of 18 postcards featuring photography by PPTNM's FYI Peer Educators. Each postcard is 5" x 7" and color printed on 100lb smooth cardstock. 

Framing Choice is a showcase of artwork created by the FYI Peer Educators, which is PPTNM's peer-to-peer sex education program based in Knoxville. Each photograph in Framing Choice represents an important life choice made by the Artist, and all proceeds from each print purchased supports PPTNM. 

Artist Bios and Artistic Statements

Kirby Renalds (he/him/his) is a senior at the L & N STEM Academy, where he serves as the current president of the Equality Club. He will be attending UT next year and plans on majoring in Biology as the first step to achieving a PhD/MD in epidemiology and virology. He has been in FYI for three years, and he joined FYI in order to both learn and teach, obtain knowledge personally and to, in turn, pass it on to his peers. He enjoys reading, writing, and playing video games in addition to having a healthy penchant for all things medical, historical, and gothic. He plans on using everything he learned in FYI, from the education itself to the implicit lessons, throughout college and effectively the rest of his life.

“Stasis”

2020 has been, in a word, tyrannical. A plethora of circumstances overwhelming and seemingly beyond control combined into one simmering, long-standing disaster – a disaster upon survival, a disaster upon society, a disaster upon equality. It has been exhausting. This fatigue is a direct result of the lack of agency: we can’t fix it. What we can do, however, is cause an impact. On the face, therefore, I have decided to quarantine; I, and many others, have put many parts of my life on pause, have spent over a year divorced from the physical world at large. Individuals across the planet have made similar decisions to isolate, to protest, to donate, to vote, to contribute. The choices made – mine and everyone’s – can be boiled down from the specific to the overarching, all-encompassing general: I am among one of many who has made the active choice to make a difference.

“We Were Here”

What would you do if you only had a year left to live? Would you squander the time you were given? Or would you make every second count? Enter Unus Annus. Created on November 13th, 2019 by Ethan Nestor and Mark Fischbach, the YouTube channel posed and sought to answer this question. And that they did: Unus Annus – one year. For an entire year, once a day, a new video was released. They gave themselves no limitations, cared not for analytics or monetary gain. The videos were simply what they wanted to produce. A year – one year – of personal gratification. Then the year ended, and with it, so did Unus Annus. On November 13th, 2020, with one year behind them, the channel and all of the videos were deleted. There were no do-overs, no second chances, no way to stop the clock tick-tick-ticking. It’s over. It ended. Gone. Dead. And I was there. For every video, every moment, every second fated to pass, I was there. I watched it live, and I watched it die. Now the ashes remain in every viewer, in everyone who decided to tune in even briefly, in me. I was there. I made my choice. I spent my time. Memento mori. Unus Annus.

Willow Peters is a senior at West Highschool who will be attending Berea College in the fall. They will be majoring in Art and hope to become an art teacher one day. In their spare time they enjoy reading, listening to music, and hanging out with animals. They are passionate about helping others find community and safety through education. 

“Southern Sky”

“Let my memory run backwards, So together we may lie, I will remember the fire, In the southern sky.” -Alex G

I love my home and complexities of the south. The hidden queer spaces and rich characters and timeless scenery. I wanted to show in this picture the depth of the blue sky.

“Fell in Love (At the Water)”

A feature I love about my home is the scenery and thunderstorms. I sat in the car with my best friend stuck in a thunderstorm, unable to drive home looking out at the Tennessee river, and I just felt love for this place and the people I know. 

Reece Brown (she/her) is a senior in high school who has been a member of FYI for the past two years; she initially joined to learn more about the legislative side of education advocacy, but has developed an interest in relationship dynamics. This fall, she will be studying History and Human Rights at Columbia. Following this, she hopes to work as a lawyer protecting people in developing regions from gender-based discrimination. 

“Shattered Recollections”

Jagged edges from an abrupt break, only to be dulled and made fond by the passing of time. Once they are dull enough to touch, one may combine fragmented memories of past relationships to form a recollection that is, in a sense, whole––though it may not be complete. Enticing as these fond memories may be glittering, shimmering in their rose-tinted glory, they deceive by omitting the dull, dark grays that ultimately brought about ruin. When the loneliness settles in, it is easy to make the choice to play old records (the ones to which beloveds once danced) and spin this rosy ball of collected fragments; it is easy to romanticize the past. It is harder to remember the pain that lurks, hidden by the refracted light.

“A Past of Dried Flowers, a Future of Severed Ribbons”

It is easy to imagine small parts of a relationship as a ribbon: sunrise dates, late night phone calls, and sweet gifts all tie two people together, pulling them closer.  With every moment spent together, these ribbons seem to grow tighter to a point where they can feel suffocating; escape, impossible. This security, once the passion fades, can feel like a cage of unsettled comfort––it is not a home, but place that one stays because she has been there for so long, she has forgotten all else: a haunted house, full of ghosts, stoic statues, and flowers left to die. She may choose to leave at any time. Though she will creak the floors as she creeps over the old wood, escaping from that emptiness, that abyss that was once full of passion, of love. She must first untie herself or cut the pretty ribbons that bind her to the person she once loved. Sever the heartstrings, the past has passed. 

Liz McKnight is a senior peer educator in FYI and a senior at Maryville High School. They are attending the University of Saskatchewan in the fall to learn, gain experiences, and continue their work in activism while earning a degree in political studies. They spend their spare bit of time caring for their houseplants and messily scrapbooking all their minuscule and major experiences. They are incredibly proud to be a part of FYI and having the opportunity to be a part of the movement towards comprehensive sex education in the community. 

“Create Your Safe Space”

Finding a safe space is much more complicated than then one may expect. In my own experience, I have found it to be difficult to find physical places that are affirming of the intersectionality of my identities. This led to a lot of discouragement but also the opportunity and experience of finding small spaces where I feel comfortable as well as creating my own spaces and welcoming others in. The image depicts my essence of home, a place where I wholly belong. It is a physical space where I feel loved but the image itself captures that sense of being held. I choose to seek out and build the physical and non-physical spaces for myself and my community to not only exist in but to appreciate and be appreciated.

“A Pause For a Stronger Start”

It is impossible to pour from an empty cup. In order to advocate for others, as well as yourself, it takes physical as well as mental energy. The work is rewarding but it can take a toll on your well-being. It is important to take a moment, to care for yourself and to regroup before starting the next phase, whatever that may be. In my personal life, I continuously have to make the choice to care for myself in order to better care for others.

Isabel (Izzy) Brown is a sixteen-year-old sophomore at L&N STEM Academy, in their first year participating in FYI. She is passionate about social justice, ecology, art, and educating themselves and others. Izzy enjoys rowing on the Tennessee River with their crew team, spending time with her cat, and looking at the moon.

“Keeper of Small Things”

I have loved being in nature for as long as I can remember, from my first walks along a dirt path or learning the names of my favorite types of trees. Nature is my home, one of the great sanctuaries in my life. I am constantly making the choice to give back to it a little bit of what it has given me, by picking up litter and trash whenever I go on a hike or visit a park. This photo was taken during a community cleanup in which I participated, picking up trash from around a local school. I continue to collect litter wherever I go, as well as educating myself and fighting for climate justice when I can, as small tokens of my gratitude and love for mother nature.

“Dwelling of My Heart (Me duele el corazón.)”

I have done a lot of emotional learning this past year. Whether it was a joy or a heartbreak that life presented me with, I made the choice to dwell on my experiences, then pick myself up, reassemble my seemingly broken pieces, and learn from them. For each element of this photograph, I can recount a specific experience, each a different memory with its own story. The bond between mother and daughter, a heart-wrenching breakup, the loss of a best friend’s love to an unclosable distance. I have again and again made the choice to dwell on my memories not as bad or good, but each as unique and necessary experiences. As I look at this photograph, my heart hurts, yet I choose to accept my pain, to embrace what it has taught me, and to use it as a tool to help sculpt my beautiful, resilient, ever-changing self.

Dakota Camacho is a sophomore at the L&N Stem Academy. They chose to attend FYI as they wanted to be able to help learn how to better educate their peers, as they were aware of the flaws in the local sex education programs taught in schools. FYI has been enjoyable to them through the discussions it opens up between the participants and the solid education that it provides.

“To Grow”

 Making the choice to grow and improve as a person isn’t always an easy one. Growing isn’t always about being strong, but rather choosing to try and be a little of a better person than you were the day before. While in the process of taking these pictures, a storm hit and caused some minor damage to the flower shown. Despite this, the flower was able to flourish. I make the choice to grow and learn in the ways that I can, even when faced with hardships thrown at me in life.

“To Care”

There hasn’t been a time where I haven’t had a cat in around 10 years. Animals have always been a major part of my life, and caring for them is something that’s really important and impactful to me. Making the choice to care for and love my pets is one that I value a lot and consider to be a major part of the person I am.

Madison Parris is eighteen, a high school senior, and uses she/her/hers or they/them/theirs pronouns. They currently attend Maryville High School, and are set to attend Maryville College in the spring. She's interested in art, education, activism, and social justice!

"Reflections"

This piece didn't turn out exactly as I'd hoped, but I'm still happy with it, especially with the colors. It's about the difficulties of changing your perspective as a teenager. Every day, we make choices about what we'll focus on - clothes, hair, friends, classes, extracurriculars - and I think we can get so caught up in things like that that we forget to take a breath and slow down. The colorful areas in this peace represent a shift in perspective, and how sometimes, you need to focus on the world around you instead of the institutions that overwhelm you.

 “Love Your Gay Self”

This is a photo taken of a piece of graffiti from the now-ruined Grace Bible Camp in South Carolina. A fire started years ago, and it was destroyed. It's a little-known place that's covered in all types of graffiti. This photo in particular, to me, represents the journey of self love. It's pretty obvious - love your gay self, love yourself for who you are - and I think that's a really important message.

Ava Takvoryan is a senior at West High School and she uses the pronouns she/her. Ava joined FYI because she saw her older sister go through the program during her junior and senior years and saw how much her sister enjoyed it and found it to be beneficial. After seeing her sister go into FYI, she decided to partake because of her belief that the KCS system grossly neglects the teaching of adequate and informed sex education. The lack of useful sex education in the KCS system in particular was disturbing to Ava, as early education and informed decisions are largely dependent on that of a school setting. Following her completion of high school, Ava will be continuing onto college at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, with an undecided major as of yet, but with an interest in criminology and criminal justice. 

“Chapters in Life”

The photograph to me represents the manner of which I believe life could accurately be described in “chapters.” Each individual’s life can be marked and designated by different chapters of change and growth, and one’s ability to move past and grow from each individual chapter I believe is the difficult decision at hand. Although certain aspects or “chapters” of one’s life may offer comfort to some, the ability to move past and further growth by moving on with the various chapters of life is the subject I aimed to capture with this photograph. 

“Revitalization”

 When regarding the frequent use of water symbolism in both works of literature and works of art and beyond, water is often used in a sort of manner to symbolize change. In addition, the use of color symbolism with the color green is often used to display the occurrence of growth or renewal. Both of these sources of symbolism to me combine to me to symbolize the difficulty in the act of growth. To me, growth may be uncomfortable or forced, but if done for the right reason, I believe growth is an absolutely essential component to a prosperous life. This growth, however, does represent a difficult life choice because growth may prove itself to be uncomfortable, difficult, or even painful.

 Carmen Alcocer(she/her) is a junior at Bearden High School. Carmen joined FYI in order to help support Planned Parenthood’s cause and to take part in the revolutionizing of sex education. FYI has afforded her with a caring support system of peers, and she looks forward to taking part in the program during her senior year. 

“Choosing Movement” 

One important choice for helping improve one’s mood, stress level, and even physical and mental wellbeing is the decision to include physical activity in one’s day to day life. Physical activity has been shown to have countless benefits, and the decision to go on a walk in nature, do light exercise, and even go to the gym is a choice that has countless benefits over staying sedentary. 

“Choosing Warmth”

Who one chooses to surround themselves with, whether it be a circle of supportive friends, healthy relationships with one’s family, and even a work environment with beneficial boundaries, is important in caring for one’s mental wellbeing. The choice to include those who feel warm, caring, and authentic in one’s circle as opposed to stressful relationships is a choice that can benefit one for years to come.