For Bridge Project #2 in studio we looked into experiences with a partner. I wandered the street of St Mark’s with my partner Alyson while asking interview questions to develop a written portrait for seminar class. The end goal was to create three souvenirs, one being a thank you to whoever you went on your discovery with. I started this project with a template for three postcards, after going to St Mark’s and having our conversations and interview I decided to make two postcards centered around the beautiful weather and another on what is identify.
For my first postcard I created my Thank You for Alyson, I went out and collected flowers and leafs fro St Marks. Then pressed the flowers over a couple days, I came up with this idea because growing up I used to always go out to collect flowers from other neighbors yards to come home and press them in books. Sometimes I would even forget about them and they would reappear in my life a couple months later. This idea stemmed from weather and what more weather related is there then the actual physical nature. My favorite part about this one was the sense of in touch with nature and our experience. If I could go back and change it I would work on working on the negative space more, maybe less white and another color to really draw everything together.
Next still following the lines of weather I created this postcard. I wanted to try something a little different for this one. I feel like in my class and around the school most people have a set “style” in their work. I am no artist and am here for business so I am very detached from a certain way of doing anything. In this way a lot of my projects turn into pieces with multiple different components to them. This one was created by sewing into bristol. I think the texture of the seems on the paper really adds something to the postcard. It’s a very minimalistic look and almost childish but it really encapsulates my experience with the colors and images.
My last postcard was much different in style and theme from the other two. This one had it’s components that make it my strongest but also my weakest of the three. Starting off with the pros, this postcard was supposed to represent identify and the masks we put on to show for other people, situations or ourselves. In my interview with Alyson I focused in on questions about how she defines herself and she decided to share a story about how she made an environment that isn’t herself become herself. This really inspired me to think of how a person chooses to present themselves. I recognize this in myself, I choose to show different sides of me based off of who I am with and where I am. I don’t think anyone except yourself will be able to know the authentic you. Which was my intention to represent and I defiantly fell short, rolling us into the cons. There is a lot of open space that makes it a little too minimalistic and my peers certainly agreed, we also discussed ways I could have presented this theme of identity with more clarity. It really relied on my explanation to put it forward and I wish I would have let it speak on it’s own more.
In the end I really enjoyed the freedom and personal aspects of this project. it brought me a lot closer to my partner and presented me with multiple perspectives in my writing and in my physical work.
