Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Self Portraits

Last year, Lauren Gaffney gave me an assignment she had created to connect students with some of the aphorisms that Wilde uses in his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. The project asks students to take a close look at themselves using two of Wilde's quotes:

1. “It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors” (Wilde 3).
2. “Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter” (Wilde 8).

and to construct a self portrait that reveals how the student sees him/herself, and another portrait as to how others see him/her. The portrait can take any form that the student wishes. I wanted to share a few done by my seniors. All are very different and show various modes of interpretation of the assignment. After looking throuhg them all, I am so inspired with how personal they all were to reveal themselves to our class. Well done!

Michael
Alex 1 and 2
Soo

Hopefully, I can convince these students to blog about their self portraits so there is a better understanding behond their pictures.

4 comments:

michaelm said...

My portrait is a collage of words that describe me, in the shape of my face. Some of the words correlate on each side of the face because some of the same adjectives are how others see me and how I see myself. I did it in the shape of my face because I wanted to personalize it, and because if I could pull it off, I thought it would look cool.
Thanks for posting it on the blog Mrs. Smith; I’m glad you enjoyed it!

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

My portrait is a collage of quotes shaped into a face, one side black and one side white. After compling a list of words that describe me, I looked up quotes that would explain me best. I liked the black and white of the face because of the balance that it created, like the yin and yang. There is a balance between what others think of me and what I think of myself. Both sides explain who I am. Also, I tend to be more pessimistic than others, so the black represents my side very well.

afoyle said...

Hello, this is Alex. Let's see...we'll start with portrait #2.
This is just what I tried to put on paper after looking in the mirror; my physical self. I have my glasses, my traditional unkempt hair, a smile on my face, and not too badly dressed. I also have a "peace-sign" amuluet (for those of you who don't know me, I'm not one for physical conflict) with prayer beads attached, representing faith in general.
Portrait #1, however, is a glimpse inside of me, visually showing what I think of myself. My hair is longer and obscures my faces (adds a sense of mystery) and I am not as happy as in portait #2. In my left hand I hold a failed assignment with math scrawled on the top (I am not a math fan), while in my right hand there are items representing some things I do enjoy: a pencil for writing and a brush for art. On my arms are the symbols of two religions that have greatly impacted my life, but at the moment are conlficting: the cross for Christianity and the three lines for Celtic-Druidic Philosophies. Finally, we have the two other figures: the shadowy devil is all my dark emotions trying to tempt me, and the angelic figure is the opposite, all my good emotions holding dark thoughts back. The yin-yang on my shirt is representing that both dark and light come together in me.