Milk-Honey-Roses

Milk-Honey-Roses

• What is the subject of your image?

• The subject of my image is myself. I decided to push this project further by really showing myself. Not in a sexual way but as me..what I am when everything is gone. I am this plus size woman. That is what matters when someone who knows nothing about me sees. That is all they see and because of that I wanted to use that and push it. Because like in my fourth picture, “At the end of the day when I’m gone does my size really matter?” and that’s a good question for not myself but for anyone.

• What is the content of your image?

• The content of my image is what society is based off. It is how they assume who you are by the looks of yourself. It is how you are sexualized. How you are labeled. How you make it in the industry. Who claims you beautiful and who claims you disgusting.

• Why did you make the choices that led to the composition?

• I made these choices to remind myself regardless of what size I am, I am beautiful. Til this day I continue to struggle with accepting that part of me. I know that I can change my body. I know I can lose the weight, tone up, eat healthier or whatever else people do to look the good that the society approves., but I choose not to. At least not anymore. It is also very sickening that something has to be trending in order for it to be accepted. For example why does being thick have to be a trend or being plus size; why can’t it just be people living the way they live and not viewed like its something that all of a sudden everyone thinks is okay because a beautiful plus size  model Ashley Graham is showing her natural self and not caring about it? These are little things I feel like are not needed.
• Also, there was someone who played part in my choices as well, her name is Rupi Kaur. She is a poet.  A well known book is called of hers is called, “Milk and Honey.” In few of her poems she talked about the female's body being their temple and not belonging to men, women or whomever. The decisions we make based off our body are entirely okay which I strongly believe is true. Being who you are should not be the talk of the day or news.  

• Explain the process and steps you went through and why you made those decisions.

• In the first photo, I wanted to show my back. Reason for showing my back was because I wanted to show that my back is what keeps me together. It is what makes me stand straight and head high ready to take whatever challenge is given to me, regardless of all the scars and old bruises that lay there. It is my backbone. I also put a blurry picture in the middle of it with the book, roses, and tea that most likely has some milk and honey in it. Reason for that was to show where my ideas would be coming from.
• In the second photo, I have my legs showing but this time the background picture is blurry and the photo that is in the middle of it. The photo in the middle says, “it was when i stopped searching for home within others and lifted the foundations of home within myself i found there were no roots more intimate than those between a mind and body that have decided to be whole” by Rupi Kaur. I chose this poem because I felt like it had a lot to do with what I was accepting now. I stopped searching for approval in others about myself and instead found approval within what God made me into and become whole again with mind and body.
• In the third picture I took this as a sign of me being okay and whole with how I look. I am in the bathtub because me and this bathtub have been through some hell. This is where I am fully naked and forced to see who I am. This is where I can consistently clean myself but I would never walk out fully clean because of the negative thoughts that still linger on to me. This is where I lay when I enter my dark place. Where I cried so no one could hear me. Where I sang my soul out for the times I was depressed to the times I was grateful to be alive. This is where I learn to learn myself. That is what I wanted to present who I am.
• In the fourth picture, I chose to leave the remainings of the mess I made trying to take the third picture. I decided to add a statement of me saying, “At the end of the day when i’m gone does my size really matter” I took myself out this picture to exaggerate the part where I say when I’m gone. I left the roses because this symbolized for me the kind of flowers people give to you when you die. The glass of milk that included the honey to symbolize the bitter sweet moment there is when someone dies. It is sad but they are finally free kinda way.

• How you would categorize your work (ex. collage, graphic print, mixed media, etc).

• I would say that it is a collage mainly because of the images i inserted into the original images.

• What artists or works are appropriate to compare your work to?

• I would like to say Rupi Kaur for allowing me to show my poetic side of myself. She was a huge inspiration on my final self-portrait but as for the images I would like to say that Ana Mendieta inspired me. She showed a lot of self identity, reality and body in her images by creating a story of photos that literally told a story.

• What quote from Society of the Spectacle best illustrates the themes in your self portrait? Please explain this.

• “The spectacle is not a collection of images; it is a social relation between people that is mediated by images.” (4) I do not want my project to be viewed as a collection of  images because to me it is not a collection of images. It is a story that is being shared by the social relation that is a daily discussion through social media.

• What do you think this image conveys to the audience?

• I think that this image conveys to the audience about how confident I was to expose myself in that way. To allow others to see me for me so that they can grasp the concept I am showing when I say being plus size or whatever size you are literally means nothing at the end of the day when you are gone.

• What are the differences between the midterm self-portrait and your final self-portrait?

• The difference is that for my midterm self-portrait I showed the confidence I had by shoving away the negative version of myself where in my final project I really wanted to shine a light on how confident I am by exposing what made me insecure before.

• What influenced these changes (events, readings, information, artists)?

• Reading Milk and Honey, looking through Ana Mendieta art works, and talking about a lot of feminists artists in Self Image played the biggest role on my changes.