designing one’s self

Yesterday was day four of my Animals in Art workshop at the CMCA ArtLab, and I thought it perfectly appropriate for the campers to include in their work the obvious animals that have been sitting in the room all week: themselves. I had photographed them the day before, specifically for this work, and prepared a large sheet of heavy paper with their printed portraits glued near the top. Pencils, crayons, and watercolors were set out, and the kids began designing themselves.

As with yesterday’s Fotoplay-with-watercolor work, there were as many approaches to using the media as there were kids.

And in watching these different approaches evolve into images, it occurred to me that this is really something one (of any age) might do over and over again, as a practice.

Imagine beginning your (or your child’s) day with a photograph of your (or your child’s) face glued to paper that could then be responded to in a gazillion ways…

It would be a new kind of mirror…

or a wordless diary…

One could create a custom line of clothing…

or a private vocabulary of shapes and symbols that could be used in a Miro-esque way.

One could, each day, tell a new story about oneself, and one’s magical powers.

With drawing + painting + photography, indescribable-with-words stories would be told…

dreamlike, primal,

Rorschach-ian

transporting, like fairy tales.

Each day a new perception of oneself.

A reflection of an open mind and a bright imagination.