My Self Portrait

For my self portrait I’ve decided to create a collage of memes that I feel represent me and my personality. To start us off, on the top left corner is a picture of a guy (me) throwing gasoline (sad music) onto a big fire (my problems). This one is super self explanatory and something that I feel many of us do during rough times and it’s something that I myself have been doing a lot lately. The marvelous Lana Del Rey serves as my favorite choice of poison for this bad habit. She truly has a lovely voice but it really serves as kerosene to the ever growing flames that are my problems. Next we have Homer Simpson taking a nap and that’s just something that I’ve also been doing a lot because of quarantine. Next to that is Spongebob passionately yelling. I chose to use this meme because I feel that I am a very passionate person, especially about film and staying home for the safety of myself and others. After that we have Chandler Bing clutching Lana Del Rey’s Lust For Life album. That album is one of my favorite albums of hers and I’ve also been listening to it a lot recently. I’m a really big fan of hers. Right below that meme is a meme of Joe Exotic. Along with being very passionate I’m not embarrassed to say that I’m also a very emotional person; I simply feel a lot but I don’t necessarily consider it a bad thing. It can be a bad thing, it has on some occasions, but being in tune with my emotions helps me better understand myself and it actually helps with assessing certain situations by getting to the root of what’s making me feel a certain way and fixing it. Next there is Dennis Reynolds from It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia laughing commenting, “you dumb bitch.” This one is definitely one to take light heartedly, it’s a phrase that I sometimes say to myself when I make a really silly and laughable mistake like spilling my cup of water all over the table or catching feelings for someone. At the corner there’s Shaggy very visibly disturbed by the thoughts of failure and impending doom creeping over his shoulder. Again this one is also very self explanatory and one that I relate to the most and very often. One of my biggest fears is failing at life and constantly living with that anxiety is no fun. Many times I wonder if I’m doing things the right way or if I’m on the right path towards succeeding at what I want to do. The truth is I will never really know the answers to those questions in the moment that I need them. All I can do is make decisions to the best of my ability and trust that it’s going to work out. This method has been working out pretty well so far. Above Shaggy we have Spongebob again crying and surrounded by hearts. This currently signifies all the love I have in me and how much I’m missing my friends. Honestly being in quarantine doesn’t really bother me that much but I do miss seeing my friends and going out together to let off some steam. Still, I rather us all be home until it’s safer for all of us to be out. Finally, in the center I have a picture of not another meme but of the galaxy. This is because form of expression is eternal and all around us. My world personally revolves around various coping mechanisms to cope and help sustain a happy cover and one of them are memes. To me this can tie to the “Private Lives, Public Spaces” exhibit in that memes represent private feelings in a public medium. Memes are everywhere in social media. Sometimes you save it if you really like it or sometimes you don’t physically interact with it at all but you still identify with it and the public.