Adam Ohman
Grade: Senior.
Age: 18.
Art focus: Brainerd High School creative writing.
Adviser nomination: “Adam is an exceptional poet. His attention to detail and description gives his poetry life. This ability allows readers the opportunity to experience the joy and sorrow of the characters he creates.”
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Memorable fine arts achievement? Hasn’t happened just yet.
Other fine arts activities: Graphic Design and Video Game Design.
Why do you enjoy writing? It wasn't until like last year when I decided to focus more on writing. Over the years, I've had to read a lot of books for English classes to meet certain goals or deadlines and I had to read any book I could get my hands on. In order to do that, I went to the library in town and I read whatever my dad would leave for me. During that time, I read just because I had to. But over time, I kept reading these books, these different genres and I kind of learned techniques that I didn't think would come in handy in the future. So, I kept reading and I learned more and more techniques and styles, and it wasn't until last year that I decided maybe I should start writing again. I should try to try to do something that I haven't done in a long, long time. And so I started writing and I kept going and improving using those techniques I learned, and then now, I think it's pretty well developed.
What do you like writing about? Fantasy is a genre that I really enjoy. Just making stuff up that normally wouldn't happen in your life, you can just go wild on paper. I also like to add a bit of mystery. I read a lot of mystery books, Hardy Boys, Sherlock Holmes and over the course of the time I had to read all those books.
Your adviser stated you are an “exceptional poet.” Do you like poetry? I actually do not. Most of my peers seem to feel the same way. We’ve done different kinds of poetry, like the one we recently did. It was backwards poetry and we had to write it so it would make sense reading down the page and make sense reading up the page. So that was a bit difficult to get the hang of.
Why do you think they enjoy your poetry? I think they like how I write things. I use a lot of words that normally some of my peers probably wouldn't use on a normal basis. Just like that peers I could just say people my own age and leave it at that. But I choose to shorten the sentence or I may make it longer depending on the word.
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Proudest piece? I really don't know. I've written quite a lot over the years. ... I would say it was a memory thing I wrote this year about my grandfather. He served at Camp Ripley for a while and he was always just great. He was a loving grandfather. He would always tell us stories about the paper mill he worked at a long time ago and he would take me fishing. Sadly he passed away quite a few years ago now. He had some type of cancer, I can't remember what it was exactly. It was a rare type of cancer. So, I wrote about that and about that day when I learned that he had passed. You know, I just kind of realized that this is real life. This isn't really a fantasy world, where you can do anything. ... I learned that things don't last forever.
It was the first time in my life that I saw my mom cry. ... The death of anyone is pretty sad and I think we all learn from the death, a loss of a life. And I think that actually kind of helped me with my writing in general because another thing that teachers say is for us to convey some kind of emotion and more about making the reader inferring what the character is feeling, other than just shouting it out.
Where does your creativity come from? Some of my creativity comes from the media. I grew up watching the early 2000s, mid 2000s and it was a pretty decent time for watching stuff on TV and playing videos. Their narratives have helped me quite a bit. And that's kind of what I put into my writing, you know, whether it's either a little reference here or there, to just an overall message.
Artist most admired: Charles M. Schulz.
Dream job: Graphic designer, possibly something to do with writing.
Favorite movie: “Back To The Future.”
Favorite TV show: “Hogan’s Heroes.”
Favorite book: “Life Of Pi.”
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Favorite song: “I Wanna Rock” by Twisted Sister.
Favorite band: Twisted Sister.
Favorite restaurant: Chick-Fil-A.
Favorite subject: English.
Perfect meal: An all meat pizza.
Biggest pet peeve: Waking up early.
Sports/clubs: Warrior Robotics, Team 2503.
Hobbies: Drawing, playing video games.
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Parent’s names and city you live in: Teresa and Travis Ohman of Brainerd.
JENNIFER KRAUS may be reached at jennifer.kraus@brainerddispatch.com or 218-855-5851. Follow me at www.twitter.com/jennewsgirl on Twitter.
