Woven Tapetry
This tapestry, focuses on identity - a girl’s identity. On the bottom, you can see the Red Cross which is a metaphor that she needs help. The bottom left is a brown rhombus - bandage, which means she has been hurt, but it can be seen as a scar as well. The two triangles mean the mouth, upper triangle is upper lip, and lower triangle is underlip. Look upward, you can see different eyes. The left eye is close, and you can see the eyelashes down, while the right eye is an arc which means she is smiling. Continuing to look upward, she has a different dark color with baby blue bowknot. The face is very complicated, including many emotions and feelings. When you see this work in a distance, you may think she is not happy, because the dark triangle stands out, while if you look at her more closely, and ignore the dark color, the inverted triangle seems as if the lip is up which means she is smiling. When you see the eyes, she seems unhappy because her eyes are closed, however, it seems like something fun makes her squint. Moreover, the black and golden color represent MIZZOU which means the girl is a Mizzou student.
In fact, this is a self-identity which combines my identity with my close friend who is an international student as well. The reason I created this work is that I am going to conduct a research titled: Inquiry into international student identity through a/r/tography. A/r/tography is an art-based research methodology. Based on my completed work, the pattern has changed from the original plan, because in my pre-thinking, this work was to be based only on my friend’s identity. I think, however, things are always complicated, not so absolute. My friend’s identity seems very negative and at the same time there is some aspect reflected underneath the sadness. It could possibly be happiness so I added the element of my own identity which is positive and energetic adding a positive aspect.
Everyone is different, so identity is always a productive and meaningful topic to explore. Actually, I am receiving some ideas from my research and reflective teaching classes. I think it is important for international students to explore their own identities, and get to know themselves. What am I? Who am I? What do I value most? Definitely, this is a living, continuing inquiry. In addition, I conducted a small research focusing on self-identity with my Chinese friends who are graduate students at Mizzou, and they do not have any art experiences. I’d like to share some thoughts that I concluded from this small research. First, spiritual maturity is a key point to understanding self-identity. It could be related to age, to intelligence, to environment. With the development of mental maturity, people discover themselves in depth. The reason I have this thought is because the participants were over 25 years old and they have had to adjust to a new life in the U.S. The new environment requires them to grow up and to be mature, and to get to know themselves. I asked them “do you really know yourself?” “Yes!” they said emphatically. I think this is an expression of being mature. Second, most of them are positive towards life here. Third, most importantly, it is beneficial for me to get to know my friends.
My related work - xylene image transfer - some portraits made by my friends when I taught them how to create their portraits by using PicsArt app. Actually, my friends thought that their artworks are limited to expresssing only a small portion of the meanings of their identities, and one of them asked me why we spent so much time exploring identity since the artworks are so limited. I think art is a tool, a tool to express life. However, the most important idea is that art teaches us to know people, life, and the world from small to big. Art skills are important to learn, however, everyone need not be an artist, an art teacher, or an art researcher, while it helps people perceive, understand, and appreciate all meaningful ideas which may be invisible. Art makes life, people, and world meanings visible.
In fact, this is a self-identity which combines my identity with my close friend who is an international student as well. The reason I created this work is that I am going to conduct a research titled: Inquiry into international student identity through a/r/tography. A/r/tography is an art-based research methodology. Based on my completed work, the pattern has changed from the original plan, because in my pre-thinking, this work was to be based only on my friend’s identity. I think, however, things are always complicated, not so absolute. My friend’s identity seems very negative and at the same time there is some aspect reflected underneath the sadness. It could possibly be happiness so I added the element of my own identity which is positive and energetic adding a positive aspect.
Everyone is different, so identity is always a productive and meaningful topic to explore. Actually, I am receiving some ideas from my research and reflective teaching classes. I think it is important for international students to explore their own identities, and get to know themselves. What am I? Who am I? What do I value most? Definitely, this is a living, continuing inquiry. In addition, I conducted a small research focusing on self-identity with my Chinese friends who are graduate students at Mizzou, and they do not have any art experiences. I’d like to share some thoughts that I concluded from this small research. First, spiritual maturity is a key point to understanding self-identity. It could be related to age, to intelligence, to environment. With the development of mental maturity, people discover themselves in depth. The reason I have this thought is because the participants were over 25 years old and they have had to adjust to a new life in the U.S. The new environment requires them to grow up and to be mature, and to get to know themselves. I asked them “do you really know yourself?” “Yes!” they said emphatically. I think this is an expression of being mature. Second, most of them are positive towards life here. Third, most importantly, it is beneficial for me to get to know my friends.
My related work - xylene image transfer - some portraits made by my friends when I taught them how to create their portraits by using PicsArt app. Actually, my friends thought that their artworks are limited to expresssing only a small portion of the meanings of their identities, and one of them asked me why we spent so much time exploring identity since the artworks are so limited. I think art is a tool, a tool to express life. However, the most important idea is that art teaches us to know people, life, and the world from small to big. Art skills are important to learn, however, everyone need not be an artist, an art teacher, or an art researcher, while it helps people perceive, understand, and appreciate all meaningful ideas which may be invisible. Art makes life, people, and world meanings visible.