More Than Material Art Show Virtual Tour

"Stop And Smell The Roses" by Eli Sutton
Sound Waves

Artist Statement

Hi! My name is Eli Sutton, I’m in eighth grade and I go to The Sutton Musical Academy (homeschool). This session I decided to be in Portable Audio, and it was a lot of great fun. My song mainly consists of guitar, vocals, and bass. This session was really cool because I got to experiment and extend my musical borders. I have never actually produced a song before, much less written lyrics for it, so that was a bit of a learning curve. My goal for this session was to write and express the feelings, and the things that I have grown in during the past year or so.

This past year has opened up a lot of free thinking space since I moved into home-schooling, and we moved from distance learning, into hybrid, and then into a semi-normal setting again. I realized that I constantly rush my life, and I was never content with where I was. My song represents the process that I went through being exhausted with life, and still yet, looking for something to fill my unfulfilled heart. I went to a Winter Youth Group retreat and I was sitting outside in the 30 degree weather, and I was reading a passage that was assigned, and it was something about worship in the waiting. I went on a walk with God, and in my mind he said “slow down”. I had been filling my life with sports, music, and school, and it was so overwhelming. I was trying to change myself, but I wasn’t ready for change. I needed to spend time with God, and needed to realize my worth in him, not myself. I grew in unexpected, amazing ways during the pandemic, and it’s been super cool to look back and see the change that God did.

I would like to thank my mentor in life, and in the music studio, my dad. He has helped me through the entire songwriting process, and supported me through life as well. I also want to thank my sis Izzy, for being my songwriting buddy, and harmony guinea pig. Thank you, the viewer, for coming and listening/looking at art. You guys make the art worth it to create, and you guys are amazing as well.

God Bless, Eli Sutton

Oral Statement