studio-body-map PDF of my Slideshow
Cartographic Body Portrait Body Map Narrative:
In my Studio class I was given a project to create a self portrait body map. The requirements were to use a large piece a of paper to trace your entire body on and then build yourself from the trace out. With this piece of work I was told to write a narrative telling my audience how have I shifted to become the individual I am today and what was included on my body map answering that question.
I traced my whole body on heavy thick drawing paper to hold up everything I was going to put on it but also to show that I am strong.
The main medium used on the project are photos of parts of my body. Correlating to my Seminar writing of body parts. The body parts are a front profile of my face then a back profile of my head and hair, undercut, scars from my birth control, lighting bolt tattoo, scars on my wrist, my hand with rings, stretch marks and birthmark on thigh, and a gash on ankle.
Here are my writing from Seminar about some of the images.
- Lip scar/freckle
Every year my whole life I’ve gotten cold sores on my lip. In 2nd grade I had one on my left side bottom lip and everyone would always say “Ew, what is that on your lip?” So one day in gym class I was sitting in the back and I was so fed up with my nasty cold sore, I picked it off. I have a scar on my lip from it and happened to have a little freckle there too.
- Undercut
3 years ago when I lived in New York for a month I decided I wanted a undercut but I was so nervous because I never cut my hair. It was a foot long and very thick. I woke up one morning and said “fuck it” and got it cut. Now I can’t stop cutting it and half the thickness of my hair is gone. Some day I’ll shave my whole head.
- Scars on wrist
My sibling uses they/them pronouns so they are my sibling, not my brother or sister. My sibling. They stole my phone to talk to men on Grindr. These men are so nasty saying things like “Hey, you horny? I can be your daddy.” I was so upset by these grown men saying these things to my 14 year old sibling. I wanted my phone back but they didn’t want me seeing what else these nasty men had said to them. We got into a real fist fight. They shoved me to the ground and scratched my wrist as I was going down.
The day before I moved out to New York my sibling and I were in the car going to get breakfast at the Waffle House. I was stopped at a red light and was listening to this man clapping at a bus stop. I was so distracted by this constant rhythm that I didn’t see the light was still red. I stepped on the gas and crashed into the huge truck right in front of me. It sounded like an explosion went off, the first thing I said to my sibling was “Are you ok? I love you so much and I’m sorry.” Next to the scars from the fight was a new wound from the airbags deploying.
- Lighting bolt tattoo
When my dad was 16, him and his friends went to go get lighting bolt tattoos on their arms without either parents knowing. His was red. He still has the lighting bolt tattoo 30 something years later but it’s not red anymore. On my 18th birthday I got a lighting bolt too. I showed my dad and he said “So cool, MaryV, so cool.”
- Giant gash on my ankle
Second week of college I shaved my legs in my small dorm shower and cut my ankle. It seemed like it bled forever. A week later we’d gotten back from the ‘More Than A Muse’ afterparty at 2:45am and Elijah said “you have to go to the ER right now your ankle is fucked up.” I was scared to look down at my ankle because it hurt and I barely walk. We got a taxi to the ER, they checked me out and said I had an infected wound. I got 1 tetanus shot, 2 huge pain pills, and a cankle. I love New York.
I photographed these parts of my body because they show who I am as a person today and my shifts. Some are now permanent but others will fade over time.
In the middle of my chest I have a plastic baggie that you can open and interact with to open and look at the items inside, my “heart bag”. Everything in the bag either has value to me. Inside the bag there is my Denver house key, photo of my family when they left me for college, photo film box with slides of film, glitter from a NYC night with Oscar, Ada, and Jazzay, my first NYC metro card, polaroid of Annie my best friend and I from my last night in Denver, my hair I cut of this project, my mom’s wedding ring, my guatemala ring, and a tooth drawing from my best friend here in NYC Elijah.
All down my right leg I decided to write my whole life story. From when I was a baby and every grade. They weren’t full memories just bull it points of memories. I did this to see what I could reflect on now that I am a first year in college. I wanted to do all the writing in my own cursive handwriting because it messy, small and can get large too. I spent 2 hours writing it all. There are some parts where you can’t read what it says because I either crossed it out or wrote it too close together. In the writing it were most of my family details, gender identification, spirituality & environmental consciousness, emotional and physical illnesses, joys and my healing experiences.
In the middle of my chest I have a plastic baggie that you can open and interact with to open and look at the items inside, my “heart bag”. Everything in the bag either has value to me. Inside the bag there is my Denver house key, photo of my family when they left me for college, photo film box with slides of film, glitter from a NYC night with Oscar, Ada, and Jazzay, my first NYC metro card, polaroid of Annie my best friend and I from my last night in Denver, my hair I cut of this project, my mom’s wedding ring, my guatemala ring, and a tooth drawing from my best friend here in NYC Elijah.
My color pallette is very minimal because I’ve shifted to a new stage in my life and I want it to be minimal for right now so I can fill in the colors to come. I used white tape to tape my photos down and sharpie grids to show that everything is still in this “working process”.
