Acorn: Lost In Translation By Eva Hoffman

Our entire project revolves around an acorn and the transformations that happen to it throughout its life. The stages throughout an acorns life are as follows: it grows on a tree, falls off the tree, and then eventually sprouts a new tree. In our project you can see three canvas, each depicting the different stages of the life of an acorn. The first canvas has the acorn growing on the tree and is just developing into the acorn it will be some day. It is safe and protected by the huge oak tree. The second canvas has a bird carrying the acorn in it’s mouth to a different place against its will and it will have to adjust to its new location. The third canvas has the acorn in the ground starting a tree of its own and a new life in this new place
The first quote we have comes from the book Lost in Translation by Eva Hoffman. The quote says “I don’t want to be pried out of my childhood, my pleasures, my safety, my hopes.” All Eva wants to do is stay in Poland because it’s all she has ever known. She feels safe there and doesn’t want to make the move to Canada, even if it will be better for her in the long-run. We painted a big tree surrounding an acorn here to symbolize the protection and safety that it has around it. What inspired us to paint a tree is that when we are children we are protected by our parents and hometowns and in a sense shielded from the real world. This is so meaningful to me because I grew up in a small town with the same people my entire life. Now that I’m at college and meeting all kinds of new people and for the first time in my life I don’t have this shelter and constant protection over
The quote on here reads “from this point on, anything that might happen would no longer be my responsibility.” The narrator is now on the plane to Germany and knows that whatever happens to the plane is out of her control. Just like the acorn and the bird the journey is out of the acorn’s control. We felt like a bird was a proper representation of this because the acorn has no say in where it’s going and where it’s going to be dropped. This is so meaningful to me because often times when I am driving in a car or riding in a plane a tense up and think that I can control the situation. In reality, I have no control over what other drivers are going to do or what the pilots are going to do. On the second canvas you will also see a tandem bicycle that was used in the film The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner. Our reason for putting the bicycle on the canvas was because it is the primary transportation vehicle used the film. Sasha loses his memory and his current life is a mess. This journey taken on the bicycle across several countries with his grandpa helps him in a sense find himself and his new and better identity. This is special to me because as I moved from Minnesota to Texas, I also felt like my identity changed for the