Silhouette Project- Kathryn Graham

The silhouette project allowed me to learn many things about myself. Not only was I able to realize new aspects and facets about myself but also I was able to learn about my personal take on color and how that is reflected through my emotions.

When beginning this project I thought it would be easy to create a work of art that reflected my emotions through the use of color. That thought turned out to be completely wrong as I started and then continued to work on my piece. I began to critically think about the placement of colors, the shapes I would use, and the placement of the specific colors I choose. This obsession over such things began to reflect how much of a perfectionist I am along with having to be organized at all times. To reflect this feeling but at the same time trying to steer away from this I used geometric shapes for the ground of my piece and organic shapes for the figure of the piece. I choose to use geometric shapes for the ground to represent the organized perfectionist side of me that people can view from my outer being. My figure has organic shapes to portray all the thoughts and ideas jumbled inside my head and how internally I am not organized or perfect at all which my outward actions seem to portray.

As for the color in my piece, my figure consists of shades of blue, green, and pink. Each color was picked for a specific reason that I did not fully know the reason behind until my piece was completed. After researching each color I used I found out that blue represents the meanings of chastity, loyalty, fidelity, faith, modesty, and eternity. I can see myself in this color and shades thereof because I have always been loyal and modest and have faith in what I do and accomplish in life. I also used blue to signify calmness within all the craziness that goes on internally for me. Green has the meanings of love, joy, abundance, hope, gladness, and spring. All of these descriptors match me again as ideas or things that I enjoy, strive to obtain or be to others and myself. Pink stands for love, purity, kindness, energy, passion, power, and courage. My reasoning behind using pink did not match the definition I found for pink. I used to pink to symbolize the erratic thoughts, stress, and all the pent up craziness that I have inside me that people often do not see. As for using black and white for my ground it was based on the outer characteristics people possibly can see in me. Black has the meaning of independence, death, strength, protection, and mystery. I choose it based on how independent I am in my life, the strength to get me through the hardest of times I have, and the wall I put up to protect myself from getting hurt.

As for white it means light, goodness, innocence, and perfection. I used white to signify the perfection I seek in many aspects of my life along with the light I have about life. When looking at the use of all my colors together for the piece I chose them to signify that I am a colorful person in a black and white world while my inner identity is not always conveyed on the outside. No matter what my colors, though, I have to remember there is only one me!