Don’t compare yourself

Don’t compare yourself 

 

          For my final project, I decided to do a self-collage. I used a canvas, acrylic red paint, dried roses, images, and gem diamonds. The artist who inspired me to do this project was Amy Sherald since she does a plain bright color background and gray skin colors, with a serious face, which I find so powerful, same with Micklane Thomas, she used rhinestones, and bright colors, Micklane Thomanas make women be powerful, through her paint, she makes women be seen heard and that she matters. For this reason, I decided to be inspired by these two great artists. 

        "Don't compare yourself" is the title of my art project, which I came up with because I frequently compare myself to others. Social media can be a threat because we only see the positive content there and are oblivious to what goes on behind closed doors. I feel like I'm still sorting out my life, but I keep telling myself that I'm on my own time and journey and that everyone else has a different time and journey, so I shouldn't feel rushed about it. I also see individuals my age who already seem to have their lives together. The media can put a lot of pressure on yourself to make things look a certain way or about beauty standards, how you are supposed to look to fit on beauty standards, and nowadays tv, social media always advertising about surgeries, and how your body it’s supposed to look, it can all get to your head, and make us feel ashamed or insecure. For my project, I wanted to do it differently put affirmations for myself to not be so harsh on myself and to accept the mistakes and the “imperfections” that I have as a human being. We should not let social media, or society make us feel some type of way we are all perfect in our way. 

When I saw the painting that Amy Sherald did for the first lady at that time Michelle Obama, it gave me power how something so simple but yet so powerful at the same time. That is when I thought about giving that power to myself, that I should accept who I am, and How I am. I printed a black-and-white picture of myself and painted a red background because I feel red stands for fire and courage. Also, Mickalene Thomas gave me that inspiration of feeling powerful, how she explores the beauty and constructs images of femininity and power. I want to keep giving myself that power and feel that I’m good enough in my own way. 

This class shows me how photography, and art it is so important in our life. How art can be expressed in so many ways, it can be expressed through painting, making a movie, singing, and so on. All of these artists that I learned through the semester show me how much we are supposed to love our job to make it so worth it and feel happy with the outcome, and the journey, and to love the process.