Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Art Foundations -- "Self Portrait"

More than a likeness











Our assignment was to create a kind of self portrait that was "more than a likeness". It needed to show two or more aspects of our personality but not what we looked like. We could use any media. I chose drawing and collage. This is my artist's statement:

This self-portrait collage explores two aspects of my personality, my analytical/engineering side and my creative/artistic side. The black that is revealed near the edges and corners represents the void out of which all things arise and into which everything later dissolves. The background of the work shows four aspects of my analytical side on sheets of numbered, green, quadrille engineering paper. The sheets represent tasks that I performed during my work as an engineer. They include flow charting diagrams (59), integrated circuit design (49), logic gate design (78) and system and data flow design (92). One number is partly obscured.

In the foreground are shown various aspects of my creative/artistic side. The melting snow and mountain stream are used to represent the thawing out of my creativity after being frozen for a long time. The streaking bird represents my work as an artist that is just taking off and getting going. The fire represents my passion for learning and trying out new skills. The zigzag path shows how I have gone from one kind of task and interest area to another, both as an engineer and as an artist. The mountain is to represent my determination to study and succeed. I feel as solid as a rock about this. The shifting sands represent my outlook. Conditions in the world are uncertain, one can never be absolutely sure of anything and one has to be very flexible. I feel I have to be ready for any sudden shift and nothing is completely fixed. Everything is held together by threads and in the center is my eye, calmly observing.

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