Border at the Neck

This is my interpretation of The Art Assignment Boundaries. The assignment seemed to focus more on the physical boundaries between physical spaces, but I was more interested in looking at the supposed physical boundary between mind and heart - which would be at the neck. I approached each side of the neck simultaneously as what each side thinks of the other side, as representations of what each side desires, and as reflections of each other. After all, they are not truly separate. I also wanted to introduce military imagery as a way of noting the friction and conflict between the mind and heart and a representation of the desire for meaningful accomplishment and valor. As an artist, this feels super unfinished to me, somewhat rushed, and compositionally off. But, for the purpose of this assignment and this piece, that is exactly how it needed to feel.

I started off by take a photo of myself wearing a black ribbon around my neck and in front of a red blanket I draped over my bedroom door. I then isolated various shades and contours of my face in Photoshop CS2 and either copied those features directly to another layer to be manipulated or made a selection of those features and filled them in another way. For the shirt/uniform, I just traced the line of my shoulders and under the ribbon, cut everything, and filled it in with solid colors and childish scribblings. I then played with masks and overlays to make the frame look like an old military portrait.