Self Portrait

For my self-portrait I decided to use two pictures that really show who I am and what I want to pursue as a career. Growing up I found it very easy to play sports and up until high school I wanted to work in the field of sports management. To this I compare the readings from Judith Howard’s research where she talks about identities coming from our surroundings objects, and our interactions with people. Growing up in a Hispanic household you’re surrounded by family members who are very passionate about soccer and all the friends I had were soccer players, so if you had asked me back then what I wanted to do with my life I would’ve easily said something in the field of sports. I had the all the support from my parents but as soon as I got to college, I had many doubts as to what I wanted to do with my life. Like many other students I was trying to find myself and truly do something that I loved and not something that was expected from my family or peers. In todays society its very easy to just lose yourself and let the opinions of others influence your life.

My 2^nd year of college I found my self taking an intro to video production class, only expecting to watch movies in class and maybe create two or three projects. I ended up falling for the art of cinematography and the creative process of editing. My parents however weren’t so happy when I told them that I wanted to pursue a career in this field. They would question how I much I would be making? They would recommend completely dropping out from college and maybe go to trade school. All the friends they seemed to had that went to trade school were making a lot more “money” than someone who majored in video production. In “Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions” I found that although it was about challenging gender roles and teaching self-reliance it also helps demonstrate how supportive parents should be of their kid no matter who they become.

As I progressed through semester without the support from my parents, I found that my close friends were really the only ones I could count on. We would meet up and film whatever we wanted. From “Private Lives, Public Spaces” exhibit I found that the home videos depicted all private lives and captured intimate moments of people’s lives and that’s something I hope to achieve and hopefully one day I can impress my parents with a film that will leave them speechless.

"The Last Straw"

For my self portrait, I have decided to use acrylic paint on a canvas to capture my bottled up feelings during this pandemic. This painting is titled “The Last Straw”. I chose this title, because it shows what happens when you get overwhelmed in your thoughts. A woman was breathing fire onto Earth. I painted this in a state of anxiety and distraught. When I first showed this portrait to my best friend through Facetime, she asked me “Is that mother nature?” Personally I like my art to speak for itself so I like to get feedback and see what others get out of my work.. However, my portrait was really meant to symbolize my current mood at the time I was painting it. I felt hopeless. Being that none of us have seen such a virus affect our country in this way, most of us do not know the right precautions to maintain a good mental health. I had no idea how to properly cope with the fact that I had to live in a bubble without any means of knowing the end date of this chaos. In 2017, I started painting as a way to express myself. Later it became a healthy coping mechanism for me.

 In beginning my process to create “The Last Straw”, I painted the entire canvas black and added white dots to imitate the Solar System. Before going any further, I had no idea what I wanted to paint, so I just painted what I felt. Once I let the background dry, I began to paint to the profile of a woman with a small fro. That woman is me. I painted her blue to embody sadness and added blood red tears to show pain. One of my biggest influences in Modern Art is Frida Kahlo, because she has inspired me to express myself through my creativity.

 I created this portrait mainly to release my anxiety regarding the pandemic. After I finished, I could my current feelings looking back at me in picture form. I rarely use actual skin tones when painting people, because I like their emotions to show through the color I choose to paint them.

Self Portrait - video

 Jeffrey Figlar

ACM

April 30,2020

Final Project – Self Portrait Link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I84wDx9iwSo

artist statment

Artist Statement

For my Self Portrait, I’ve decided to record a video as my assignment. I just recently received an Adult electric scooter for my birthday and have been using it to get out of the house and to self-reflect during this pandemic. I would like you to think of it as if you went for a run and or bike ride, and or just need a moment to enjoy nature and life. During this terrible pandemic, society has completely shut down and for the last month, everything has been on halt. The scooter is something I’ve wanted for a while now and when I received it from my wonderful girlfriend, which so happened to be at the beginning of the quarantined (perfect timing) it immediately gave me an instant new hobby. Even though it sucks not being able to see my friends or family, this new scooter was a new shining light, a new reason to get outside. I’ve finally got to take it out and drive it around, and from that first kick push to start the engine I glided down the street in pure enjoyment. I was immediately obsessed; I rode it for 3 hours straight (until it died). I told everyone I knew they needed to get one, and some did and were all hoping to ride together after this pandemic, but until then it’s just myself, my scooter, and my face mask, until better times of course. Also, I know that may sound sad, but this is an uplifting video, this is a video I hope inspires anyone to get out and make the best of a crappy situation. In all, I want to show how I am having some fun getting out but practicing self-distancing and respecting people’s space. I hope my steps can inspire you to find a new hobby and or even purchase a scooter lol, but either way please find some self-happiness during this dark time.

Final Project : My Self Portrait

Eric Morales

CLQM Art Cult & Med

Professor Cacoilo

24 April 2020

My Self Portrait

My self portrait represents the characteristics of hard work and determination. This can link with other key characteristics such as perseverance, compassion, and self motivation. For me, I’ve always been a hard worker from the start. Being an only child my parents taught me discipline and what the real world was like at a young age. In order to get the things that I wanted, I would have to show my parents good grades because they were really strict with it. It has made me the man I am today and I will be forever grateful. As of now my main focus and goal for this year is to provide for my family and to improve on myself. During this quarantine I am helping my parents around the house and just relaxing with one another. My main passion is bodybuilding and improving on my body everyday. Unfortunately during this pandemic the gym is closed and I do not have weights to work with so that resulted in me turning my usual workouts into home workouts. It’s a struggle from going to the gym everyday to staying home indefinitely. Most people would stop working out during this time but I wanted to keep improving and took it upon myself to do so. The benefit to this quarantine is that I can’t eat any more cheat meals for my diet more than I usually do. I know I’m not the only one dealing with hardships during the pandemic; however, I want people to never lose hope and to stay driven everyday to complete any task they have put in front of them. Ta-Neshisi Coates’ struggles and adversities living in the United States as a African American creates a connection with me because of the hardships and struggles that my family and I are dealing with during this pandemic. I made this connection even though I am not African American because of the struggles that I am dealing with now during the pandemic occurring. I had lost my grandma last month in the hospital in Portugal and my family and I couldn’t travel over there because of the virus. So it brought me down and I was torn up from it that I couldn’t be there; however, I know that my grandma would want me to be strong and to keep pushing to be better no matter what. The beginning of this year has been the most challenging year of my life; however, I'm focusing on ending the year strong. I just want everyone to know that this year will get better and to stay strong during these times.

A self-portrait

My version of "right to protest" by Joelius Dubois and "A Cathartic Release" by Ladon Alex








In such a difficult time in our history, it is easy for us to lose our way. Mother Nature is undergoing a hard reset, and all of her children have been brought along for the wild ride. The key, I’ve heard, is to remain strongly rooted in your identity and your footing in the world. SZA’s mother also taught me that embracing the unknown can offer a sense of comfort.


With my self-portrait, I chose to stray away from the traditional and superficial concept of the


“self-portrait” and provide a more in-depth portrait of who I am as a person.












My version of "We Kick Racists in the Mouth" by Ladon Alex and "tears for negroes" by Joelius Dubois






To begin, I have a growing interest in art, especially younger, more unknown artists. Two of my favorite artists right now happen to be Joelius Dubois, a 19 year-old digital artist from Columbus, Ohio, and Ladon Alex, a 21 year-old digital artist from Arkansas. Both Dubois and Alex’s art effectively capture the raw spirit of a black youth refusing to stay silent in a rich, white man’s world.


One of Dubois’s pieces, “right to complain”, depicts a black youth using his trumpet to tell the world what he truly thinks of it. The music-lover in me instantly fell in love with the idea and decided to make this project a little self-serving. For one part of my project, I combined the image with a piece of Ladon Alex’s, called “A Cathartic Release”, which shows a being sporting a large hole in its back, as if a new being has emerged from the discarded skin like a butterfly leaving a cocoon. My version of these two images has the "spirit" of the trumpet player emerging from the back of the husk, my representation of black youth’s voices refusing to be ignored. A quote from Jill Tarter's interview with Krista Tippett sums up the rebellious nature of the rebellious energy of the painting in six words: “You never have to grow up.”










"A Cathartic Release" by Ladon Alex




Another piece of Dubois’s, “tears for negroes”, shows a black woman in her Sunday best, shedding tears, a sight all-too powerful in our country’s history. I took that image and combined it with a piece by Ladon Alex that has a much different energy than Dubois’s. Alex’s “We Kick Racists in the Mouth” is a piece whose message is abundantly clear, and I felt a connection between the two pieces. In my second installment, I had these two polarizing raw, black female energies next to each other, with the violent, justice-hungry black girl acting as more of an idea in the head of the black woman crying in the real world. I did this to represent the concept of black women being forced to keep their emotions in check in society, in fear of being labeled. I also selfishly interpreted this image as an overall rejection of gender norms and accompanied the image with a quote by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie that explores this idea of censorship.









"We Kick Racists in the Mouth" by Ladon Alex





A little fun fact about me, I fully believe that we, ‘we’ being everyone on the planet, have the potential to make this world a paradise if we all treated each other with genuine love, empathy, and respect (at the very least). I also like to listen to music from time to time. That being said, I believe that showing empathy in a time where we all need to stand together as a family is definitely a step in the right direction towards healing the wound on our planet.










"right to protest" by Joelius Dubois





Growing up in a society where racism is alive, but still low-key enough that major action has not taken place, I am genuinely concerned for our planet’s future and how certain groups of people have been treated since this pandemic started. This project was admittedly a long shot, as I have no prior experience in creating digital art, but I had intended to use two pieces of art completely independent of each other, and form them into certain ideas that I took away from this class.









"tears for negroes" by Joelius Dubois

Self Portrait: HER

Britley Blessitt

Final: HER Artist Statement

My self-portrait is a combination of everything that describes me and features spoken poetry. When I was two years old, I was diagnosed with amblyopia and soon had to wear eye patches. I hated wearing my eye patch, I would feel like the female version of Captain Hook. I would have to wear one patch growing up so I would be forced to use and strengthen my weaker eye. I never wanted eye surgery to correct my eyes because I was scared the operation would go wrong. But more importantly I reached a point in my life where I stopped caring about it. One eye is bigger than the other and one eye is lazy. Most of my childhood, I went to church almost every Sunday with my mom and older siblings. One thing I learned for sure is that God will love you no matter who you are or what you have done. Because of my eyes, growing up, people would look through me instead of directly at me. I had to learn how to wear invisible earplugs that would tune out their hate and negativity.  When I had finally learned how to walk, my parents noticed that I walked with my right foot inward. This would lead to shoe insoles and the inability of wearing high heels. When I was four years old, I used to shake at times so I was wrapped in white cloth that smelled like kofal and put on a seizure watch. In a medium size room, I watched, bandaged up, as my parents and doctors waited on the other side to record my movements. After 48 hours I was released and nothing major was found that would cause a permanent stay at the hospital. I was not a premature baby however I was told that I have low muscle tone. Growing up, I was also viewed differently because of my weight. People would look at me and ask “Are you bulimic” or “Why are you so anorexic?” I received such ignorant comments all because I happened to have a fast metabolism. However, I did not let what I had experienced stop me. I found love and I found love in myself. I smile it off and love myself harder than the day before. My smile is one of my favorite features about myself. My smile uplifts me every single day, that’s why it was so important to have in my video. Once I started loving myself completely, my life had become so much brighter and fulfilling. I found a way to also express myself with the use of poetry. I love to write and read poetry. A few of my favorite poets are Maya Angelou, Walt Whitman, William Shakespeare, and Emily Dickinson. I was truly able to formulate my self portrait by listening to Indie Arie. I love her soulful, soothing, passionate and empowering voice. She is one of my favorite artists that I constantly listen to. Her song “Video” is inspiring because it represents self-awareness, self-confidence and self love. 

When viewing my self-portrait, you may wonder why I have other people in my video. I truly feel I would not be the woman I am today with those people. I would also not be here if it was not for my parents. I am myself and they are all a part of that “self”. In a poem I once wrote, I described my family as the players in the game of chess. My dad would be the king, my mom is the queen, my brother is the knight and my sister is the bishop. When I started at college, I met my closest, best friends and they have taught me so many important lessons. I also love all the random chill hangouts and the best food dates a girl could ever ask for. This video means the world to me because I have pictures of me where I’m happy and loving what I see. When I was younger, I used to hate looking in the mirror and taking pictures.  I reference my work to Judith Howard’s research and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Feminist Manifesto. Howard describes that our identities come from our surroundings, objects, and our interactions. She also wrote how identities are constantly evolving and expanding. I am growing everyday and I can’t wait to see the woman that I will become. In Adichie’s suggestions, she explained how important it is to have a sense of identity and understand your culture. Over the years, I have learned to truly accept, understand, and love myself. Honestly to me, that is the best gift that I could ever have.