Self-Portrait

 

I have to say, I'm very very proud of my self portrait. 

 

First things first, the process. I cut out the line drawing of my self portrait and pasted it on a collage of Black Lives Matter posters. Then, I pasted Ferguson articles as clothing on my shirt. I used some carstock to draw the female symbol with a fist in it and pasted it onto my shirt. 

The making of this portrait was a journey in itself. Having to make a self portrait for school was both invigorating and terrifying. I loved working with Riva and artistic expression, and I worried I wouldn't be able to do an accurate representation. Throughout the semester, we've done reading about race, intersectionality, and the effect of being a person of color at Bryn Mawr, but I don't think anything could have prepared me for this semester. 

This semester, which had been bookended by the Confederate Flag issue and the refusals to indict, affected me deeply. For many other people of color on campus, it affected them too. It did not, however, seem to affect the Bryn Mawr campus as a whole, which was disheartening and disturbing. 

This portrait meant a lot to me, and I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to make it for class, especially these classes, especially now.