Identity Project Notes Part A

5 "Touch Points"

1. Death of my grandpa
2. Changing high schools
3. Middle school friends
4. Going to college
5. Tramatic event my freshman year *


5 Adjectives to describe touchpoint

1. shattered *
2. distrust
3. reform
4. uncovered
5. trapped


5 Metaphors

1. beautiful struggle
2. painful growth
3. hitting bottom
4. secrets and lies *
5. end of a chapter


For my touchpoint, I chose a tramatic personal event in my life that occurred my first semester of college. This event changed my life and caused me to rethink who I was (person I was vs. person I wanted to be) and where my life was going. This event really took me by surprise and changed my life immensely, and still has an impact on my life a few years later. I chose this touchpoint since it has been such a big part of my life and I still haven't gotten totally over it, so it is still fresh in a way with more to explore. For my adjective, I chose shattered because in a way that is what this event did to my life, it shattered my expectations I had for how my life would go. I feel that I can definetely make artwork based off of this word. I enjoy making things, breaking them, then reassembling them in a new way. For one of my pieces last semester in ceramics, I worked this way. For my metaphor, I chose secrets and lies because I like the way it sounds and it fits in well with my other two choices and can but used with my other choices to create an art work that interests me. Additionally, for a while, secrets and lies surrounded the event I used for my touchpoint, some of which still exists today.

My original idea for this piece was to do a black and white photo collage with triangle cut outs of pictures and solid colored triangles interspersed together at different angles. I also thought that I might maybe want to make it 3-D. Then, today when we met in groups during class, my group members had some really awesome ideas for how I could push this project further and more unique ideas for materials. I wasn't really sure what I was going to use for materials, probably card board and black and white copies of photos. Then, someone in my group suggested that I used foam core board to arrange the photos and then cut it up and rearranged it on another foam core board. Then, someone in my group suggested using a mirror and I really liked that idea. I think the mirror will really capture the idea of being shattered. Additionally, sometimes mirrors can be used to decieve. Not everyone knew what was going on in my life, so in using a mirror, it is kind of like exposing it and reflecting it back. Also, the mirror can reflect my shattered image because that event really changed the image I had of myself and caused me to question who I really was and what was really true. I am planning to copy images from this touch point in my life with tracing paper, then create stencils and ultimately paint a more simplified silhouette of the images on the mirror using black acrylic paint. I think that if I were to use colored images it would not be as effective and like the tone that the dark silhouettes on the glass establishes. To me, that gives a kind of creepy more unsettling and nervous feeling, which is what I want. For a while, some of these memories from this touchpoint were like a dark shadow lurking over my life. I am also thinking about doing a simplified self-portrait as well to intersperse with the other images to reflect the changed image and questioning of myself during this time. Once I have all of the images on the mirror and they dry, I am planning to shatter the mirror with a hammer. Then, I am planning to use the shattered pieces along with wooden dowels to form a new and different whole using a building technique similar to that employed by Roy Strassberg in his Holocaust angel pieces.