Self Portrait

Anatomy

My self-portrait named, Anatomy, is my take on the self portrait project. When finding inspiration for what I wanted to do, I discovered an image of the different sections of the anatomy of a face. My goal was to take those sections and turn them into a type of mask. The mask I show to people, and the mask I see myself.
One of the papers we looked at during this course, by Judith Howard, looked at the different ways a cultural setting can affect how we act or even define us. In my artwork I wanted to look at how our identity comes into play in that discussion and how it can be a type of mask. A more micro look at the large topic of identity. I also found influence in Wendy Red Star’s, Crow Peace Delegation. The idea of showing deeper aspects of someone through pointing out areas  that people may not notice stuck out to me. It helped in nailing down the final look of my piece.
The image on the left is the mask that I believe people see when looking at me. I used positive words that people have used about me and that define me to those around me. I used what I would define as a macro identity, such as veteran, as well as micro identities, such as quiet. The image on the right is the mask that I see myself in. I used negative words that I have attached to myself over the years. In the middle I have the word “ME” as a way to not only separate the space, but also show that my true self is somewhere in the middle. I used positive words on the left and negative on the right in order to create a sort of gradient. The balance between the two sides is where I believe the true illustration of who we are can be found.
I chose digital art as my medium because I am a graphic designer. Understanding typography and how it sits in the composition is very important to my field. I wanted to include that in my image, and after searching I found examples of labeled structures in the human face. I thought the division of the face could create the look of a mask and I chose to have a picture of myself underneath the image as a way to push this idea. This fit into much of what we’ve discussed very well, and I developed the idea from there.
I believe that viewers will be able to relate with the masks. Although they most likely may have different words, I believe that the sectioning off of areas will allow them to put their own words into it. I hope that through this work people will be able to recognize that they aren’t alone if they find themselves seeing two different masks. Hopefully they will be able to find the balance between the two, and see that the mask doesn’t define them, and that they can find their true self in the balance.

@jamesnegridesigns