My goal for this project was to analyze myself and my growth over a few years. I connected with traits I still possess and ones that I no longer resinate with. I built my project with these characters leading the way.
Art
English
With creating the art piece above, writing an artist statement only felt right. The statement going into detail outlining my process. I go into detail about a younger Xanafia and current Xanafia. I rewrote these two paragraphs multiple times to finally create my best statement. I chose to write an artist statement because I felt the painting needed a little bit of explaining; instead of leaving it open to interpretation. I felt this way since some of the printed new articles in the background are a bit controversial. Anyway, below is my statement.
This painting is a reflection of me as a child. I drew inspiration from Louis Boudreault who drew famous people using pictures of them as children. He would make the paintings unique and he’d paint the children but add features or specific dress they wore now that they were older. He painted Gandhi and added a bullet wound in his forehead because that's how his life ended… I liked the idea of drawing myself using a picture of me as a child and adding features I have now. In the foreground, I sketched the picture and added in shadows. Then, I put things in like blue hair, a septum piercing, a nose piercing, and lots of freckles. I plan to work on the painting, changing my clothes to my style now which is a muted 90s style.
As a younger child I was a follower. I didn’t let myself form my own ideas, views, or feelings on specific topics. For example, during sixth grade the LGBT movement was a prevalent subject. The people I surrounded myself with thought it was “disgusting” to be gay or be anything other than just man and woman. I didn’t make a decision for myself and tagged along with their beliefs. Luckily, over the years I realized I didn’t have those same opinions. I feel like everyone should be able to be themselves. So here I am now a whole new person, I look completely different from when I was younger; everything about me has changed. My style is different. A younger Xanafia would be in the newest Hollister collection and wearing all white Keds. Now I prefer thrifting for my clothes because, you’ll rarely ever see another person wearing the same thing you are. I truly appreciate uniqueness. I like weird printed pants, graphic t shirts, oversized flannels, and vans. I think the thing that affected my growth the most was my change in hobbies/interests, also friend groups. I played volleyball in middle school and was really worried about being a popular/preppy kid and that's what I surrounded myself with. Now I enjoy being around people who share the same love for art that I do and are cool with just driving around, listening to music, taking pictures, and adventuring.
This painting is a reflection of me as a child. I drew inspiration from Louis Boudreault who drew famous people using pictures of them as children. He would make the paintings unique and he’d paint the children but add features or specific dress they wore now that they were older. He painted Gandhi and added a bullet wound in his forehead because that's how his life ended… I liked the idea of drawing myself using a picture of me as a child and adding features I have now. In the foreground, I sketched the picture and added in shadows. Then, I put things in like blue hair, a septum piercing, a nose piercing, and lots of freckles. I plan to work on the painting, changing my clothes to my style now which is a muted 90s style.
As a younger child I was a follower. I didn’t let myself form my own ideas, views, or feelings on specific topics. For example, during sixth grade the LGBT movement was a prevalent subject. The people I surrounded myself with thought it was “disgusting” to be gay or be anything other than just man and woman. I didn’t make a decision for myself and tagged along with their beliefs. Luckily, over the years I realized I didn’t have those same opinions. I feel like everyone should be able to be themselves. So here I am now a whole new person, I look completely different from when I was younger; everything about me has changed. My style is different. A younger Xanafia would be in the newest Hollister collection and wearing all white Keds. Now I prefer thrifting for my clothes because, you’ll rarely ever see another person wearing the same thing you are. I truly appreciate uniqueness. I like weird printed pants, graphic t shirts, oversized flannels, and vans. I think the thing that affected my growth the most was my change in hobbies/interests, also friend groups. I played volleyball in middle school and was really worried about being a popular/preppy kid and that's what I surrounded myself with. Now I enjoy being around people who share the same love for art that I do and are cool with just driving around, listening to music, taking pictures, and adventuring.
history
For this project the history portion was the easiest portion. I was building a project based on me, so I knew all of the history. So I created a sort of mind map, linking one of my characteristics to a past me, a current me and then to some facts I researched. After that I wrote some brief sentences connecting past me, present, and the facts. Sort of difficult to explain, so there are pictures below!