Description
The materials I used for this piece are simply a canvas, acrylic paint, and chalkboard paint pens. It took me a long time to decide on what to make for my Expressive Self Portrait project in my Advanced Art Honors class, going through ideas that all seemed not good enough. Eventually, I ran out of patience and decided one night to take a picture of myself the way I looked then- my hair a mess, the dark circles around my eyes from staying up late studying and working, and in my mismatched pajamas because I had been procrastinating doing my laundry. With this piece, I really just went for it, no thinking ahead, unless you count my poetry I have written over the past year that on a spur of the moment I threw in there as well. Even though there was no planning for my project, I think it turned out just as I hoped it would. The dark background reflects the world at rest, but my face and clothes are in dark and muted colors, emphasizing my mood over everything else. I often times write when I cannot say what I want to, and I often times feel like my body does not reflect my mind or my personality- but this painting I think truely shows a side of me that is lost from the eyes of others; not entirely sad, but more so in a state of quiet despair, where my thoughts are cluttered and spill over the sides and my expression is as if I am not feeling anything at all. My self-image and thoughts are as if they are finally on the same page, content with the time they have together before the sun rises and life begins again.
