Last updated Feb. 17, 2012
Follow the Stray started out as an independent project of mine during the summer of 2009. It was meant to be my Honors project but was later replaced by my film "My Life As a Human Being."
The name comes from a couple of different things. First, I am a New Yorker. This is the only title I can feel a strong bond and connection to. Since I am so proud of my urban roots I wanted something to speak to that. What would a New Yorker's spirit animal be? Rat maybe...roach...pigeon...all likely possibilities...squirrels, too...but no, these just were not right...
This is where the second part of where the name came from comes in. As I said being a New Yorker is the only title I feel bonded with. All other categories, titles, and labels just don't work well for me. I'm ultra girly enough, but I'm not a tomboy either. I have no defined religion. I am a New Yorker but I'm not from any one specific borough or neighborhood. I have no distinct race or ethnicity. I'm a mutt. A stray wandering, looking for a place to belong. As soon as I thought that, I knew it was perfect!
I admit I was a bit sad and lonely when I came up with Stray. I truly felt like an outcast with no home left out in the rain. Since then I've been adopted into a happy home (in a manner of speaking)--but a mutt is still a mutt no matter how pretty the collar--and a stray will never forget their past no matter how cozy their new home is. That's how I feel now. Still mixed up, wary of my past, but completely grateful for what I have.
So why the broken heart?
When a stray loses their home, their heart is broken--and like any broken heart it's hard to mend. A broken heart will never be the same as it was before; but with hope, strength, and courage, it can be strong once again.
The Stray heart is broken but if you take a closer look it is cracked down the middle in a lightning bolt shape--a symbol of strength and also of light/life. A stray must always carry the burdens of their wounded hearts--but that doesn't mean that they can't live. That doesn't mean they can't take the past experiences that had hurt them and turn it into their greatest strengths.
In short the Stray heart symbolizes that life and love are not so perfect and pretty--something broken can still be beautiful. In fact, in my opinion, the things worse for wear tend to have the most character.
About Sam
Sam prefers to be called Sam and not Mrs. Harris (or Ms. Rodriguez) or Samantha, because Ms. whatever makes her feel old and when people say "Samantha" she thinks she's in trouble. Don't call her Mrs. Terrance Harris either, because that just sounds stupid. Ew.
Sam also loves her new pink her--although all pictures she seems to take with said pink hair turn out crappy and do not show off her magenta awesomeness.
Since the birth of her son Sam hasn't had much time for her art, but slowly she's beginning to get back into it--especially now that she's teaching Art Class and Adv. Computer Class at SMART University again.
About (Cooper) Jak
(Cooper) Jak is nothing without Cooper. (Cooper) Jak is a guest writer at Follow the Stray and has taken the lead on the "Broken Hearts Club" project. (Cooper) Jak hopes to use the heart breaks and aches of the people to create a film. She also plans to create a film about Lony Ghorri. (Cooper) Jak has been published here and there online and in magazines, but she aspires to be a pornographic novelist-yes, it has been done before, but (Cooper) Jak's really into the body. . . (Cooper) Jak is also one of Sam's closest and dearest friends ! If it were physically possible and if Sam's fiance would allow it, Sam would have a child with (Cooper) Jak.
Cooper's a painting of a neo-coloured gay man with emo hair and earrings. Jak wants to be him.
