FINAL SELFIE PROJECT

 

   The subject and theme of my final project has to do with expressing emotions, pain and your dark humor. This is my final selfie project which I chose to do a photoshoot into a collage type thing because I knew I can relate to the selfies she would do and what the meaning is. I also loved how Frida expressed herself in the portraits. Which Frida Kahlo inspired me to do this shoot. This process was very inspiring since Frida is one of my favorite artists and I had two different outfit changes plus the flower crown to add on to which Frida always had on her. The flower crown is what defined her as an artist. But I did go to a lot of stores and find materials for the flower crown to make it similar to Fridas. I also added some color lipstick to my lips since she always had red lipstick on as well. The backdrop to the last picture was also photo shopped because I could not find a flower backdrop anywhere. The flower jumper I picked out because Frida had used a-lot of flowers in her portraits and since I did not have a backdrop with flowers I decided to not go with a flower outfit. The blazer was to sort of cover myself as Frida had in some of her pictures she never had pictures that show much skin. I was inspired with these three different pictures of Frida Kahlo because her portraits and her as an artist she expresses herself with in her artwork are symbols and metaphors that reflect her emotions, her pain and anguish, even her dark humour. . Also her self portraits each one of them valued a moment of her life or a political issue in her home country which was Mexico. This selfie collage conveys to the audience and viewers as knowing to understand what someone has been through but not expressing through conversations but yet artwork and self portraits the way they pose, present themselves in the portraits goes a long way. The difference between my first three selfies and my final is I changed outfits and more value through portraits as too adding more effects and background into it so my selfie can pop out more. Also for the final I took some time to think about what kind of outfits I am going to use as even backdrops into it. Something that influences this change was my professor because she was giving me ideas as she showed me a flower crown that one of her students made in one of her previous classes and she made one for herself as well so the student gave the professor one and used one for her project. She also told me to think outside the box as I previously told her I was going to end up painting instead. I do feel like I learned a lot with the different artists we discussed. I was interested in most of the artists which I put more effort in than others and it helped me learn more about myself. The media and its images influence identity and self presentation because no matter what someone is going to say something about you and the media is a huge part of this since everyone believes what they put on social media is always true. Posting on social media something different than what you are as a person in real life is also the big deal.

                                                                    Quotes 

    "The tradition, however, still forms many of our cultural assumptions. It defines what we mean by pictorial likeness. Its norms still affect the way we see such subjects as landscape, women, food, dignitaries, mythology". Pg 84 

"The rules of etiquette can appear frivolous and superficial ; they are, after all, not obviously related to the important activities of commerce and politics. Yet they are the medium through which everyday instrumental and pragmatic activities are expressed". (Pg 77) 

"It minimum the self is bifurcated, it has a double ; there is the conscious and unconscious, private and public, civilized and base, good and bad, and we can create ourselves as well-rounded beings from the management of these seemingly opposed elements. (Pg 126) 

Final Self Portrait

                              

Barbara Kruger 

    When exploring ideas for an artist to reflect on the final portrait assignment, I decided to choose Barbara Kruger, as mentioned to me in class. The context of my portrait revolves around the critiquing of feminist imagery. Barbara Kruger became a top choice for this project because her trademark style presented interesting choices of images, paired with raw, vocal messages. That is why I chose the photo I'm presenting, alongside with the vocal message. When deciding on the artist, I first went into researching more about Barbara Kruger, about her life, her story and most importantly, her art pieces. I then thought about a message that has a deeper meaning to myself and something I live by. I chose this specific photo of myself because it was at a point of my life where I started to mute negative energy sent off by other people. I was 100% invested in bettering my lifestyle as a whole.    

    From this self portrait, the audience will convey the significance of self care and how a vision can put you in a better direction. The difference between this self portrait verses the others is that this piece was my favorite this far. I think it became one of my favorite assignments because I became very interested with Barbara Kruger and her art pieces fairly quickly and it was easy to relate to her type of message in a somewhat sarcastic form. It's important to understand that media and it's images influence identity and self presentation. Whether it's through body shamming or what society thinks if morally right from wrong. Society alone can be the hardest critic and will have many feeling they can not be their true sense of themselves. That our happiness is what we need and want it to be rather than what others think is best for us. I feel that from this particular artist I've learned that being straight forward does not necessarily mean it is always a negative thing. 

Quotes:

Joanne Finkelstein 

"She convinced him of her general state of anxiety, of her fear of degradation, loss of reputation and social marginalization that would result from a simple slip in her performance." (The Art of Self Invention, Chapter 1, Pg. 53)

"It reflected the growing interest in what we understand now as the psychological dimension of social life and it demonstrated the necessity of all individuals, in every social situation, to take account of their effect on others. ( The Art of Self Invention, Chapter 2, Pg. 86)

"Can we still operate with confidence when we know that the rules of the game are such that everyone is inventing themselves? How do we imagine the self after we recognize the various levels of social detachment, interior fragmentation and role invention that each of us achieve?  (The Art of Self Invention, Chapter 1, Pg, 68)

A change - Final project

 

kehinde wiley - selfie

 

    I enjoyed doing this selfie portrait inspired by Kehinde Wiley. She uses flowers her portraits and different things that are super vibrant. In which I chose the background that I did which has a whole bunch of nature in the back but still vibrant till this day I get compliments on this picture. 

Quotes for this selfie are under other selfie I did 

Mickalene Thomas - Elysha Torres

     Bell hooks Understanding Patriarchy

        

"Patriarchy is a political- social system that insists that male are inherently dominating, superior to everything and everyone deemed weak, especially females, and endowed with the right to dominate and rule over the weak and to maintain that dominance through various forms of psychological terrorism and violence" 

“As their daughter I was taught that it was my role to serve, to be weak to be free from the burden of thinking, to caretake and nurture others.” 

Bell hooks The Oppositional Gaze 

"The movements the attitude the glances of the Other fixed me there in the sense in which a chemical solution is fixed by a dye"

"When most black people in the United States first had the opportunity to look at the film and television they did so fully aware that mass media was a system of knowledge and power reproducing and maintaining white supremacy"

 

Last selfie

 

    The artist I chose to inspire my final project is Andrew Lenaghan. The reason I chose him to be the inspiration for this project is because he uses urban land scape for his artwork I enjoy the scenes of the city and I love the view of the city particularly at night time and also I feel as though the place that people come from really plays a part in who we are as people, so my intentions are to utilize urban landscape to embody my final project. Also the city in the back of my selfie is New York which not only is beautiful to look at but also played a significant role in the pandemic because it was once the epicenter of the whole thing and also the pandemic was something that effected all of us.

Inspired Final Project - Elysha Torres

 

 My final project is inspired by Frida Kahlo in which this is one of my favorite artist from this class. I will be doing a photoshoot from portraits she did previously. These pictures inspired me because I can relate to Frida Kahlo story and what she been through as well as the challenges presented. Growing up with a type of beauty someone thinks would not be beautiful for themselves. The first picture is a idea of what I will be doing with the photoshoot different types of poses and I will also be doing a crown. 

Quote- "spectacle actively alters human interactions and relationships. Images influence our lives and beliefs on a daily basis; advertising manufactures new desires and aspirations".