Week 3 Discussion

Many artists find their identity in their creations or through the process of creating work. “It’s an
artistic outlet for artists (MOMA video).” It was not until the past thirty years that concerns of
“personal identity” were constructed and understood, making their way to cultural observation
and artistic practices. In chapter nine of West’s book, Portraiture, she explains some key aspects
of portraiture. These are (1) mimetic portraits. The artist uses the face and body to display
themselves in a more characterized and playful manner. (2) The use of mediums and artistic
exploration, especially with cameras, has been used to capture their bodies to convey their ideas.
This became very popular in the 1970s.

One interesting topic covered in West’s chapter for the week was the presentation of social roles
and the artist's fashion within their portraits. “Role-playing is exploring fluctuating aspects of
identity in portraiture….as a means of undermining the idea that identity can be encapsulated in
representation (West, p. 206)”. Reading this, I connected it to the subject matter from MOMA’s
video of the three artists in “Art & Identity.” The first artist was Frida Kahlo and her work “Self
Portrait with Cropped Hair.” I relate the chapter to this work as Frida completed her self-portrait
in a dark/dull colored suit, sitting in a chair, with scissors in one hand and her long hair in the
other hand. This portrait was her response to separating from her husband, Rivera. He loved her
bright, colorful dresses as well as her long hair. The second artist from the video, Glenn Ligon,
talked about his famous prints, “Runaways.” He used physical descriptions and “essential
details” and took those descriptions to place them under 19th-century images of runaway slaves.
Compared to the 19th-century slave runaway flyers, they appeared to be shockingly similar. 

The short film, Identity by Kalhil Adames brought back so many memories from school. I
noticed that the students who were in groups (or clicks) all wore the same-colored mask. A few
seconds showed one student changing her mask to another as she left one group to talk to
another. I immediately thought of the person as “two-faced” in a way. The main character’s
mask was different than the rest of the student body. Her mask was white with bright/attractive
colors and designs on it. Yet no one seemed to notice her until she broke her mask, revealing her
identity, which led her to completely removing the mask; then, everyone looked. The teacher
speaking in the background referenced Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. This is about the
representation of how ‘we’ live in the world yet understanding reality vs our interpretation of it.
There is also meaning behind the game of chess that was being played throughout the video. 

Around junior and high school, we typically start to find our identity as people and, if you’re
lucky at such a young age, as an artist. It was perhaps grade eight when I started to discover my
identity as an individual, but not until college when I was able to discover my artistic identity. As
an educator, I want to incorporate more discovery of my student’s identity in the class. More
than just their sense of self, students also learn about and understand their place in society,
fostering belonging and acceptance.

I want to share with the class an artist and educator, Stanley Bermudez. I was lucky to have him
as a Painting I instructor. Stanley is another artist on my list of inspirational artists that I greatly
admire. A lot of his work is based on his identity as a Venezuelan American with bright colors
and a folk-art demeanor. He also does a lot of identity portraits of himself, his family, and people
in American, Mexican, and Venezuelan cultures. The link to his website is also listed below. 
Week 3 Discussion

https://www.stanleybermudez.com/home
Week 3 Discussion

https://www.stanleybermudez.com/artwork/166279-1936699/continuity-or-line-series-serie-
continuidad/painting/marylin-monroe.html
Week 3 Discussion

https://www.stanleybermudez.com/artwork/166279-1936715/continuity-or-line-series-serie-
continuidad/painting/frida-khalo.html
Week 3 Discussion

https://www.stanleybermudez.com/artwork/166333-1936749/family-paintings-cuadros-de-
familia/painting/self-portrait.html