Yesterday Harmony Motter came to show my photography 1 class at Allegheny College her work and talk about symbolism. She told the class that symbolism can be personal and that you really don't have to explain it to anyone. She brought in a pear as an example of something that could be a symbol. She then gave me the pear and I ended up taking about 35 pictures of the pear. I ate the pear and it was good. I'm not going to explain the symbolism. I have used an apple plenty in my work and the occasional pear back when I was drawing and painting. I liked what Harmony told my students about putting in symbolism that means something and even leads to making other pieces and how we are not obligated to explain ourselves. It goes back to the idea that making work, keeping your thoughts active in the pursuit of personal expression--thats what we got into art for in the first place. Photograph by Richard Sayer