Please enjoy this interview with UWL student, Baley Murphy!
To see more of Baley’s work, check out past issues of The Catalyst!
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Interview with Rylee Hedberg
Please enjoy this interview with UWL student, Rylee Hedberg!
PC: Received from Rylee Hedberg
To read some of Rylee’s works check Volume 17 of The Catalyst!
What is your major?
Communications
Where is your hometown?
Waseca, MN
What do you do for fun, besides writing?
I enjoy running, yoga, nature, reading, music, hanging out with friends, Netflix, and drinking beer!
What inspires your writing?
Usually, things that are happening presently in my life, whenever I have a lot going on in my head I write it down and most of the time the writing manifests into itself.
You wrote a piece for The Catalyst called ‘News’. Can you describe what inspired that piece specifically and what kind of role the news has in your inspiration?
I was researching a book for one of my classes called Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. I had read a few excerpts from it and was overwhelmed with what Postman had to say about the way technology is shaping our lives as well as the way we communicate with one another. I suppose I just channeled all of my thoughts into writing which usually helps me gain a clearer image about things in my life.
Do your career goals include any aspect of writing?
Hopefully! I’d like to be a journalist, maybe specializing in music or travel…or try my hand at a book or short story!
A Little Inspiration for You!
The deadline is coming up quick! Here’s another prompt in case writer’s block has got you down!
PC: Retrieved from msecnd.net
Sam has lived on the coast of Connecticut since birth. However, rising sea levels change the real estate market as properties on higher ground and properties further inland become more valuable, causing many on the coast to become impoverished and flock inland. Sam decides to move to a booming Midwestern city foreign to him/her because they’ve only ever been exposed to widespread flooding and poverty. Now Sam must start a new life, and meet new people…and today Sam bumped into you. Where do you take Sam? What must Sam learn, appreciate and accept in your town? What does Sam have the most trouble with? Where is Sam’s family?
A Prompt For Your Thoughts
Tell us your story!
Open Mic Night!
Come join The Catalyst and Sigma Tau Delta for an Open Mic Night!
Interview with Austin VanBuren
Please enjoy this interview with UWL student, Austin VanBuren!
PC: Austin VanBuren from Volume 17 of The Catalyst
Austin VanBuren is a veteran artist who has been featured in The Catalyst frequently. Austin is passionate about art and photography and is a sophomore at UWL, studying computer science.
When did you get into photography?
I think it was senior year of high school, around December. That’s when I decided to get a camera, but I had started taking photos with my phone earlier.
Your photos are always so lush- it seems like you really concentrate on some life force whether that be fog, condensation, etc.
I definitely try to go for a living, breathing world kind of thing. Lately, what I’ve been trying to do is create a sense of mystery. My biggest thing is how people interact with their environment, but not in a formal way. So, I observe a lot of people- and to me, it’s colors and what people wear, how they move.
Do you think having a nice camera is necessary to take good photos?
I personally don’t believe you need an expensive camera to take good photos- I started out on my phone. A lot of people see an expensive camera and creamy backgrounds with bokeh, and yeah, that is nice- but it’s just making it look a little better. For me, getting a more expensive camera and more lenses is about opening up opportunities. I’ve had the same Nikon with a 50-ml lens, and I’ve been using that for 2-3 years now.
What projects are you working on right now?
I got really into this project I started, ‘A Collection of Men’. It’s just like dads, your stereotypical middle-aged men. It’s really fun, going up and just talking to them, being like, ‘Hey, I’m a photographer, can I take your picture?’ I wanted to do something that incorporated my humor with my photography. And I thought about it, and I wanna make a book, or a magazine or something. I thought all summer, ‘I’m gonna get it done.’ I didn’t get it done, unfortunately, but I made a lot of progress, and I’m pretty happy with that.
I wanted to ask you about this- where do you set your portraits up? There was one with a pink and yellow background that I loved.
One day I thought about those blinds and how that shadow is there every day, so I popped out my tripod at like 12:30 at night and did the self-timer thing and clicked the button. I grabbed my cactus off my desk, I don’t know why, and I sat there thinking, ‘What can I do with this?’ Self-portraits are so hard with not being behind the camera. You have to think about everything beforehand, which I don’t like because I feel like it has an unnatural kind of thing. It really targets the self-confidence, to learn your own good angles. It also makes me appreciate taking pictures of other people, because they’re going to think some angles are poor, and you have to fight with how they see themselves and how you’re seeing it and kind of mix and match.
What are you excited to do in the future?
I’m looking forward to playing with this diamond filter and splitting the picture, playing around with that. I wanna do some more creative things with light. I want to mount this new flash off-camera and mess around with shadows.
To see more of Austin VanBuren’s photography, check out some of the past issues of The Catalyst!
Sunday Morning Prompt
Here’s a little scene to help get you going!
As they slapped mosquitos on their forearms, Sean and Matilda breathlessly trudged up the trail in search of the parking lot. Shadows littered their path as the woods grew dim; night was rapidly approaching. As Matilda noticed the long shadows crisscrossing their trail, she rued their decision not to read the map more closely. Suddenly, off to their right, they heard a noise…
PC: wikia.com
Tell us what you think should happen next!
Alaina Steffe’s Poem
Please enjoy Alaina Steffe’s reading of her poem, “The Room,” and be sure to keep listening for her explanation of how the idea for this poem came to her!
Time for a Prompt!
Tell the story of a medium (someone who can communicate with ghosts) who is bad at their job.
Happy Valentines Day!
Photo Retrieved from blogspot.com
Prompt Time!
Here’s a little inspiration to help get those creative juices flowing!
