Art class assignment - Make a newspaper collage from a black and white photograph
Title: The Mask I Wear
I used a photo of myself that I took a couple months ago. I chose the pose in which I was wearing a mask to convey that my true self is hidden from the world. Also the mask in the photo is covered in cut up book pages so I thought that it would work well and be easy to translate later for the newspaper collage piece.
I found that I really struggled with creating the collage. It was quite time consuming and the textual mask that I thought would be so easy to recreate with newspaper was very difficult for me. I didn't have enough black newsprint to recreate the very solid black area of hair so I printed out a solid black piece of paper on my printer and used that to make a cut out for the hair. I rubbed an eraser around the printed paper to rub off some of the toner, giving it a texture more in line with the newsprint. The very hardest part was translating the lips in the collage piece, I finally had to give up trying to create them solely from paper and used a marker to draw in the shapes. I then expanded my use of the marker to outline the mask and eye holes to tie the image together.
I think what I most wanted to try to suggest with this piece is that we all wear a mask. We hide behind masks of behavior, gestures, words... only letting bits and pieces of our true selves show through in certain social situations. I don't think anybody ever reveals the whole of themselves to the world, we are all guarded and masked. It's how we survive.
