In my first selfie, I decided to take a picture of my back with a cross on it. A major portion of who I am as a person is my spirituality. The importance of my Christian faith in my life is represented by the cross with a flower and bible verse. My presence is in the picture, but I felt that I did not need to show my face because I did not want it to lessen the focus of the image on my back. The selfie was inspired by both the works of Cindy Sherman and Mickalene Thomas. Both artists showed me that I could represent myself and the different parts of it the way I want to.
Mickalene Thomas's works showed me that there is great value in the qualities that make one's identity. To be more specific she displayed the "strength, personality, and confidence" of women of color in her art. I found it admirable that Thomas focused on the women of her background who were not usually portrayed positively in art and showed the world that their identity is worth being proud of. It also gave me the thought of humility because everyone is different and unique and should be honored. I found it also very humbling to learn that she even went to use rhinestones that were time consuming to apply to make the people in her pieces pop. The backgrounds were always so full of shiny colors so I wanted some type of unique colorful background as well in my selfie.
I really am fascinated by Cindy Sherman's work. Sherman liked to use herself in mostly all of her photographs. Despite seeing her in the photographs, her work has made me reflect upon myself more than wonder about her. Sherman would recreate things that she had seen either in person or made up in her mind and made it the way she interpreted it. I would describe Sherman's work to revolve around role playing and showing the existence of a dynamic and fluid personality that people all have. Furthermore, I think that her work encourages us to open up ourselves and also be open to interpreting things differently. From this, I hope to encourage everyone to look into all the parts of themselves, find the parts they value most, such as faith if applicable, and strengthen it.
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