New York University: Interactive Telecommunications Program

Our first assignment for Animals, People and Those In Between is to make a self portrait of ourselves as our spirit animal or as our animal familiar. I’ve naturally always been (what word can I use here?) other worldly drawn to whales, however, your spirit animal isn’t necessarily the animal you adore. I took several online quizzes (cheesy but it helped) with results of Tiger, Spider, and finally a Snake. Here’s what the test result said for the snake: “Beautiful and deadly, strong willed, love to explore new things. But please, listen to your familiar, don’t strike unless necessary!”

It was the “But please, listen to your familiar, don’t strike unless necessary!” part that shook me. I’ve been trying to pay attention to patterns in myself that I don’t like because I feel like I’m getting to an age where, unless identified, these fight or flight reactions could have serious repercussions to my happiness in the future. I come from a line of stubborn women that trust and work and give their all … until hurt … then strike! I wanted to face this part of myself, honor it even.

The Day of the Dead festival is my favorite holiday. Many people make paper mache costumes for the Dia de los Meurtos parade that symbolize/portray characters or sides of themselves that they would like to put to rest. I decided to use paper mache in spirit of this holiday with the hope of putting my strike to rest, by acknowledging it.

I had a hard time cueing myself up with the self timer, and actually was quite uncomfortable being in front of the camera. I haven’t taken a self portrait since I was in a photography student in undergrad. I decided on a strait forward portrait, fighting trying to turn the snake into a concept driven piece … face it … that’s what this assignment was about for me.