My three pieces from this class are connected through the idea of growing up. The themes explored in my pieces are Childhood, Nostalgia, self identity, changes to your self identity, feeling disconnected and sexualization. I chose to focus on the theme of growing up because I just turned 17. I think especially because the past year or so has mainly been in quarantine or only around a few people, it felt like I was growing up very fast when all of a sudden I was 17. It made me want to look back as my childhood is coming to an end and consider how I’m changing as I get older.

My first unit project was a self portrait and collage. This piece, “A Movement still in Motion” is a way to look back at the stages of growing up. I think college is a great medium for A piece of my life so far because college is a collection of meaningful items and memories and it can continue to grow with you. It starts at the bottom in around toddler years and goes up to my age now. I want the audience to go on this journey with me and hopefully relate and remember these ages for themselves. My intention is for people to see the stages of growing up in my own life and to see them all laid out chronologically. This is not a representation of the feeling of growing up. It’s purely nostalgia.

My second piece, “Eighteen” is a photo series showing how teenagers are sexualized the second they turn 18, specifically young girls. The story consists of 10 photos and it shows a girl turning 18. Under the photos we see the quote “She’s fine as hell. If she were 18 you wouldnt be ashamed to say she's a hot piece of ass, and she is…. She's adorable. Her 18th birthday is [coming up] and the countdown is on, baby!” This is a quote from former KNBR radio host, Patrick Connor, about 17 year old olympian Chloe Kim. The title of the piece is Eighteen. The girl is clearly upset about turning 18. This is because your “protection” of being a minor is taken. The quote is there to show that even though being a minor does not stop the sexualization, it does, in many cases, make people wait until 18 to publicly sexualize them, or without guilt at least. The “countdown” is over and that's what I was intending to show in my series. This piece is about realizing how the world views you as you get older and losing that protection that comes with being a minor.

My third piece, “Unrecognizable” is an acrylic painting on canvas of a girl looking into the mirror in a school bathroom and seeing a distorted reflection of herself. The intention with this piece is to show self reflection and feelings of being disconnected with yourself, or not recognizing yourself as you change. It signifies realizing the many changes within your own identity you are going through and coming to terms with not being the same person you were maybe even last year. I use myself as a reference for this painting. The color palette is mostly made up of greens and purples. The painting had a green tint to symbolize this feeling of discomfort in your reflection.

The order in which the viewers will see the pieces are one, three, and two. This is because this makes the most sense chronologically. The first piece is from early childhood to where I am now in my life. There’s a little self reflection but it was Made mainly to represent and most importantly remember the stages of growing up. The second piece represents self reflection and your evolving identity as a teenager to the point where you might not recognize yourself compared to who you were a couple months or years ago. The third piece is once your child comes to an end and you are a llegal adult. It represents the new burdens that come with turning 18 which is being looked at like an adult by much older people and realizing the bit of legal protection you had from this type of sexualization as a minor. Of course being a minor doesn’t protect anyone from being sexualized, counting down until someone is 18 is proof of this, but the fact that they wait till 18 shows they know it is wrong to do so before the person is of age. This is something I’ve been thinking about since I realized how soon my 18th birthday is. I want the view to take this journey of self realization, self reflection and the mix of anxiety and sadness that comes with I either almost turning 18 or turning 18. The story of these pieces talk together as one and looking back and smiling, realizing you’re growing up and then realizing the reality of what that means.