Project One: Self Portrait and Timeline

Self Portraits courtesy from Senior Class 2010:
Min Sun Kim

Michelle Villasenor

Joe Buckel

James Linehan

Chia Lin Wong

Chrissy Culver

Saideh Joodaki

Shauna Perry

Zach Silverman

Nathan Linkous

The Infamous Self-Portrait and Timeline Project:

“Who am I anyway? Am I my resume, which is a picture of a person I don’t know.”
-A Chorus Line
Who Am I Anyway?
How do you define yourself?
How do you describe yourself to others?
When someone you meet for the first time and asks you “So, What do you do?” What do you tell them?

Throughout your career as an artist/designer, there will be occasions when you will asked to submit an "image" (usually a photo) of yourself for a variety of professional reasons. This personal image of yourself might be used in tandem with an article you might have written, winner of a competition, a speaking engagement, a blog,a newspaper article, a gallery exhibition or even an interview in a periodical. This project will serve to demonstrate how you want to project yourself as a designer/artist at this point in your life. This project will make you take a good long look at yourself and where you are currently in your life. Perhaps you create an image of yourself that will possibly follow you throughout your academic career here at GSU.

Background Info:
Self-portraits are not just a reflection of what they look like but also of how the artist interprets themselves and the world around them. It is perhaps the most personal story that the artist can tell and makes the self-portrait one of art's most important subjects. These types of self-portraits by artists/designers have quite a history. Since the fifteenth century and the advent of the mirror artists have modeled for themselves in their own works of art. Whether it is an in-depth exploration of the artist’s own psyche or simply as a model, the artist is clearly the cheapest and most available. Whatever the reason, most every artist, in every medium from painters to sculptors have attempted this exploration of self-image that is self-revealing.

Since the Renaissance, artists have used self-portraits to explore a basic question: Who am I and how will people remember me?

While a mirror or a photograph can tell a person what he or she looks like, that physical image does not reflect the whole self, the whole persona. Self-portraiture insists the artist embark on a journey of self-exploration in order to make decisions about how to represent him/herself authentically. For each self-portrait, the artist must ask: What expression, posture, clothing, background, colors, texture, and style best express the real me? Might those answers be different at any given time or on any given day? Self-portraits may also represent an artist’s quest for immortality, as a way to leave behind an image that will outlive the artist. Sometimes self-portraits are celebrated for their pure vanity (see Warhol images.)

Production:
Be creative. Think outside the norm. Be Bold. Be Brave. Be Insightful. Be True.
How you wish to create this is up to each of you. It might be a really creative formal head shot or a series of images of you in various color palettes (again Warhol images), it might be a painting, a paper collage, a drawing, mixed media, film or video, print (Polaroid transfers/cell phone photos), high contrast b/w decal or spray transfer, image from video, etc. You might wish to present only a portion of your body (cropped images that are stitched together via thread) or a full-length image. Depending on your concept of who you are, it might be a classical pose (Rembrandt) or a contemporary depiction (see Lucas Samaras); it might also be an altered image of another famous self-portrait (cut-paste); and lastly, it might be an image of yourself on black velvet (ala Elvis.)

Experiment. Be Bold. Be Brave.
You can be daring or bold, but most importantly be honest and creative. You have permission to make this self-portrait however you wish (paint-by-number, arts and craft glued beans and macaroni, etc.) It might be a video that runs over and over on a TV set-flickering and edited.

*NOTE: All of these images will be displayed for others to “see” who you are and hopefully create a sense of conversation and spark enlightenment as to your new status as a Graphic Design major at GSU.


Jason Dooley


Nathan Linkous




PART TWO
The Personal Time line Project:
What got you here to this place in time?

If you have ever taken the time to read “The Artist Way” by Julia Cameron the you will begin to know that the direction you are heading in is guided by your past and your place in this world, but more importantly your own world. I do believe we create our own reality. The Good and the Bad.

“See it. Believe it. Achieve it.”

By creating a creative time line of how you got to where you are right now at this moment is critical to knowing where you might want to be in the future. This time line should demonstrate (in any method you wish) how you got to where you are. It should reinforce all those “forks in the road” and those painful and ceremonial decisions you had to make to land up as a Junior in the Graphic Design Department at GSU.

How will you link your past to your future?
Who will show up on your visual time line?
Will it be a historical time line of names, places, and dates or will it be more esoteric?
It is important to retrace your steps and those people and places and events that changed the course of your life.
Are you the master of your own path or have others guided you?

Be creative.
Take this serious because I have seen this type of project actually change artist for the better.
For every action, there is a reaction and you are a part of that kinetic energy that moves us through time and space.

Use any method you wish to complete this project.
You might want to do a video, compose a song, create a printed document or a one act play just to name a few.

_______________________________________________________________
SPECS for project for both the Self Portrait and the Time line.
Horizontal Format 12 x 18
Printed/Boarded with name/logo on reverse
Paper stock your choice.

COPY SPECS:
On the right hand side you should start off at the top with:
-Your name (however you wish to create that in type)
-Latin Name: Just a working title for yourself based on some characteristic you might think you have regarding yourself as a person or artist, etc. (Homosapien Imaginerous, Graphis Maximus, Graduatus Cum Laudis, Walkus Conudrumis)
-Description: Brief description about yourself, your designs and how you design, and what inspires you to design (Minimum 100 words)
-Voice: How you see yourself in the design world. You might quote yourself or interview yourself here about your own design/creative voice.
-Distinctive Markings: Brief Description in your own words about what you thing "identifies" your work from others so far. Color palettes, layouts, compositions, typography or other factors which signals that you actually "own" your individual designs.
-Habitat: Where you work or live or co-exist as a designer. It could be a studio, bedroom, coffee shop, museum...just where others might find you designing and creating.
-Contact: website/email, address her or whatever your feel comfortable