Student 26

The me I have come to know is quite the same as the me I knew before except that I believe I have a slightly better understanding of him, I mean me. In my self-portrait I tried to use objects and ideas that are generally associated with me by others and myself. I tried to rely on both my views and the views of other people about myself so that it could be a more well rounded project. I have come to understand that there are always going to be qualities that you hate having and sometimes just choose to forget you have them. However, there will also be others who would be more than glad to inform you of these qualities of yours who are just waiting for you to ask for an opinion of yourself. In the process of this project I noticed another thing about myself, and that is that no matter how good an idea is or highly developed it is, I will still change it, throw it out, and bring it back into being many times before I am finished. This brought another meaning to two of my pieces already on the project as something else, but I figured that there is always room for more.

The main thing that I notice about my project is that there are many simple and geometric shapes. Rectangles, squares, triangles, circles, and a few cylinders are utilized as ideas through body parts. Rectangle is the most prominent and since we studied the square I tried to divide out one square and use it as my base. Since this square is a stable shape, I used it as a part of me that will not go much change throughout life, and that is my head, which is the body of the piece so it symbolizes the body. The body will grow old and certain physical aspects of it may change, but it will still be a body. The triangle I decided to use as an implied upside-down object between the eyes and the nose. The location is generally where the brain is located and that is where goals and dreams come from and the ideas to accomplish them. Circles were used as the eyes, which may seem as an obvious choice, but there a different reason as to why one should choose circles for eyes. They are used to show the unity and wholeness of my person, which is one reason why the two are of different sizes and that is because I am not a completely united person in both the extraversion and introversion of myself. I believe that even though I am for the most part happy with my life that there is always room for improvement and that is why I believe that I am not fully in unity with myself. Although I am not quite sure which version is the larger part. The cylinders are pretty fun shapes that involve circles and the reason for their inclusion is that I really enjoy root beer.

Jungian theory suggests that one must united between the extraversion and the introversion of one's self to be truly united. The ways to accomplish this unity are through sensing, feeling, thinking, and intuition. For sensing I included the eyes and nose in my project for site and smells. Feeling is shown through the arms and legs where the can rims act as hands and feet. Thinking is shown from the triangle, since it is placed where the brain is located. Intuition was and will be used in how the project is viewed and perceived by others and myself.

A literal explanation of my project involves analyzing the common objects that are in my life. The sketch book hair shows that I love to draw and the unfinished quality of the drawings shows how my attention gets diverted somewhat like Leonardo de Vinci. Sometimes I prefer the drawings I do unfinished which reminds me of what we learned about Michaelangelo and his preference for his unfinished works cause they were more perfect. The projects left eye is made of really old guitar strings that I removed prior the making of this project. Because the strings were over a year old and caked in finger oils and all kinds of grime I figured that they could symbolize how lazy and prone to procrastination that I am. The right eye is a "round to it" made so that I could never have to worry about getting a round to it, whatever "it" is. I included it just because I really like it and things that are quite literally what they say they are. The eyebrows are cut outs of my favorite style of guitar, of which I own three, the Fender Stratocaster. My nose is made from a little soft fabric pouch similar to what I carry guitar picks and accessories as well as just random things I like inside of. My mouth consists of three lines of nonsense shaped like a smile. This is because I can talk forever and never really say anything of any importance but I will generally be smiling while doing so. Next to last are the blue Wal-Mart bag cutouts that were used in the cheekbones and chin. Some might say that this is simple because all Georgia College students go to Wal-Mart for school supplies and snacks. In reality, the bluish green color is one of my favorites, next to burgundy and navy blue. Finally, my arms and legs are Frosty Root Beer cans, which just happens to be one of my favorite root beers. Another thing the cans symbolize is how messy I am in my living quarters if I can find four cans without having to dig into the trash.

Most of the project came from things learned in the class and from people who where only to glad to help in telling me about myself. What is really neat is how these ideas combined with the literal meanings of the objects to complete this project and make it kind of a literal abstraction of sorts. Yes, this is a face with two arms and two legs, but not only do the objects symbolize their respective body parts, but also two or three ideas behind them. This project has helped me realize that even though you may think you know who you are, you may not really know the true you until there is made a simple self-portrait of found objects.

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