As the annotated bibliographies were winding down and we all are gearing up for even more writing, the iMedia class revealed their self-portrait projects to each other this week. This assignment gave us the opportunity to open our minds to new ways of expression and creativity through a non-digital self-portrait in Visual Aesthetics with Professor Motley. With Motley being our graphic design professor he decided to throw us a curveball and required us to shut the laptops off and pick up a pen or a paint brush for this assignment.

By: Juwan Johnson
With each individual in the program possessing their own dynamic personality it was clear we all would produce something very different. We all had many visions of how we could represent ourselves in a creative way, so we all flipped open our sketchbooks and got to work. With ideas twirling and pencils dancing it was a great way to see how creative we could get.

By: Kyndall DySard
We all definitely pushed the limits of what a self portrait is and the reflection of ourselves were made on paper, canvas, some with wire and yarn, and even a small sculpture(to name a few). With all of these creative geniuses in one place, we all cranked out some quality work! All 26 of us had a unique way of representing ourselves through art and some of us didn’t even know that was possible. Whether it be Expressionism, Realism, Postmodernism, or Formalism we all seemed to enjoy this project! We all may or may not have had a vision and but we all made our portraits come to life. Specifically, our own personal, unique lives. The tale of who we are, what we want to be, or where we came from. Some people took political routes expressing their views of the world, others took it to their passions and what makes them tick. It was entertaining to see how well people in the group know each other and how well we can spot the emotions and feelings put behind it based on the things we know. We may have even figured out even more about each other based on these portraits. For most of us we went with the happy, joyful colors but others went dark and mysterious. It was interesting to see that some of us have a deep side and some of us are just out there, on Mars! But, that’s the fun in it all. The different ways of expression help us not only figure out our creative style and our limits but also those of our peers.

Portraits by TJ Felton & Kendra Sharpe
All the portraits held a significant meaning to each person but all together served the same goal. That is, to gain approval from Professor Motley…just kidding. But, the goal of accomplishing something many are afraid to do! Putting emotions on display and reflecting to others those things through art are not only challenging but nerve racking too. We all will remember this project and laugh because this is just the beginning. It will be fun to see how different our self perceptions will be in May! Until then, happy writing my fellow classmates!