In brainstorming for my piece, I decided I wanted to capture both my own and my partner’s essences, as well as our passions and commonalities. When we went on our friend date, I realized how much we did have in common – both in terms of interests and goals, but also in terms of our temperments and how others view us. I decided to create both portraits on the same “canvas” (copies of The Catcher in the Rye book, which we both agreed is one of our favorites) to emphasize the cohesiveness of our portraits, and the similarity between our personalities. Also, when thinking about Ellie, I kept thinking of the phrase “open book” – once she enters a conversation with you and feels a bond she can share easily and listen well, which makes her easy to connect with. I felt we definitely had this in common.
In Ellie’s book, I wanted to emphasize her bubbly demeanor, her passion and strong sense of direction in fashion design, and the feeling she gives others when they’re talking to her. I followed a theme involving flowers – I made flowers out of black and white buttons (black and white to give the feel of her clean cut sense of direction, career-wise) to incorporate her passion for design, and I gathered and dried flowers from Battery Park (where we went on our friend date) to capture the airy feeling of that day and the fun, open conversation we had together. Her poem captures a deeper sense of her personality and being.
In my own book, I wanted to evoke the same feeling of direction and passion as in Ellie’s, only using photos instead. I collaged polaroid film to demonstrate my similar sense of direction, career wise. Though Ellie and I’s poems definitely differ on subject matter (mine, more about finding my career path; hers, more about her anxiety and thoughtfulness and how it affects her temperament and work), they find common ground on how they helped us to get to where we are now in making art.
I collaged some portraits and details about our outward appearances to attempt to “label” the books as our own, and give them a larger sense of being representative of our essences.
