Guest Post by Christine Deitte, our Stoneboat Intern

Christine Deitte is a senior art major at Lakeland College with a graphic design emphasis. She is serving as Stoneboat's intern during the Spring 2013 semester, and she previously held an internship with Lakeland College's Career Development office. Christine chose to intern with Stoneboat to strengthen her writing skills, and she felt that it was a particularly good fit when she learned that the journal publishes creative nonfiction, which is an interest of hers. We've loved having Christine on board as a member of the Stoneboat team and are grateful for all the work she has done in the last few months.  


When I think about writing, it reminds me of past experiences when I wrote inspirational poems for fun in my spare time. I wrote a poem for the Phi Delta Omega Sorority that I belong to, and I was inspired to continue writing. My Career Development supervisor, Jess Lambrecht, thought my writing skills were good, and she said I should consider writing. I was not sure if my writing skills were good enough, and it took her encouragement to realize my writing skills were better than I thought.

I decided to take creative non-fiction course because I thought the class would be a fun and interesting. I had always enjoyed writing poetry because I think it helps me to express my feelings and what I am thinking about. I figured creative non-fiction would also help me to explain past experiences in my life.

I was sitting in Old Main 2 on the first day of the semester, wondering who was going to be in my creative non-fiction class. All I saw was bright grey tables that are next to each other. Green curtains were rolled up and I saw the bright sun shining into the classroom. Straight ahead was a blackboard that had the previous professor's notes written on it in chalk. As the other students walked in, I realized my classmates were all writing majors. I knew these girls from other classes, and each one had her own personality. When I realized I was surrounded by all writing majors, I was terrified because I thought my writing skills were not good enough for the class.

As the semester went on, we did an assignment about childhood memories. We had to think about our past and how it relates to our life today. I thought this was going to be a fun assignment to write about. Looking back to my childhood memories, I realized I had the same interests today as I did back then. I always enjoyed art when I was younger, and would always have a drawing pad. In my art classes at school I was able to learn about the basic fundamentals about art. Today I am majoring in Graphic Design and have enjoyed taking a variety of classes that help express who I am. I enjoyed taking creative nonfiction for the same reason, and I know my experiences in that class will help me develop my writing skills as I continue with my Stoneboat internship.

Writing has changed who I am as a person and helps to express my true emotions in any piece that I write. I love poetry and creative nonfiction because I feel they give me a way to leave an inspirational message. I feel completely different when I write down what I am feeling every day. No matter what I write about, I love writing stories and inspirational poetry. I want my readers to get a sense of my writing style and visualize my past experiences.

Writing is not the only way I tend to express myself -- I also do it through my art.  There's a definite connection between writing and art.  For example, my art can include writing when I design posters. In most instances, there trends to be a graphic in the background with writing as the focus to show the most important information. When choosing a writing style for my art, I tend to look at the graphic first and choose a style that correlates with the graphic. It becomes extremely important to remember that the writing cannot take over the graphic, though.

My experiences with art taught me many ways that I can express myself. I experienced my first art class during second semester of my freshman year. I decided to take an Adobe Photoshop class to get a better idea of what graphic design was all about. Walking into Verhulst Hall for the first time, I did not know what the classroom would be like or if I was going to know anyone in class. As I approached the room, I saw a lot of Mac computers side by side. It was very bare with white cement walls all around. I felt like I was in an enclosed building where there was no way to escape. Signs were everywhere about rules of the lab and what I was responsible for while I was in the Mac lab. It almost felt I was in middle school and being told the rules of the class room.

When class started, I did not know too many people. I was the shy one who did not speak to anyone and was excited to learn what I would be doing for the semester. I found this class to be very interesting because I was learning about the different effects tools and the way they could help me to manipulate an image. I personally enjoyed working with the black and white tool because I enjoyed the contrast. This class helped me realize that I needed to continue pursuing a major, and a career, in graphic design.

Graphic design made me appreciate art in many different media. It was interesting to learn about art history. I found it fun to learn about other artists during different time periods, and the way the artists used light and shadow to capture the important features. I personally enjoyed learning different techniques to show off important features in my own pieces. Art can inspire creativity to put our own interpretations and emotions into each project. I found myself coming up with ideas that can create different interpretations depending on how you look at it.

When I think about the future, I see myself working with children and helping them to show off their creativity through art or writing rather than by putting to negative use through violence on the streets. I would love to teach them how to express themselves through different media. People all have their own way to show how they feel about a situation, and I want them to be comfortable using whatever artistic or writing technique is best for them. If I can make a difference on someone else’s life, I will do whatever it takes to get these children on the right path without getting into trouble in the streets.