APD Play and Self

Theme: Play and Self

Context

For the week's theme of Play and self, as I heard Matt talking about how different aspects of self can be brought into play, I thought about how a lot of artists use the concept of "Identity" to make their art.

Everyone's identity is unique to themselves. And one of the most unique things about our biological makeup is our fingerprints. This is why they use the thumbprint as an important "proof of identity."

The idea came up because the concept of play and self made me think about these paintings by American artist Chuck Close, who painted photorealistic portraits. His "fingerprint" technique is quite famous, in which he uses finger painting to create realistic portraits of people.

Close, C. (1986) Leslie/Fingerprint [Direct Gravure]. Available at http://www.graphicstudio.usf.edu/gs/artists/close_chuck/close.html (2021).

Method

For this week's activity I decided to create a self-portrait using only my thumbprint. I took a paper and some ink and got my hands (well, my thumbs) messy for this one.

Response

Materials used: Ink and paper

I wanted to show a juxtaposition of the identity that we see at "face value" and an actual biological aspect of ourselves that can differentiate us from each other.

Reflection

My artwork didn't exactly turn out to be perfect, but I do think that it holds an interesting message. I feel like this could be an activity that can be used in a variety of situations, such as

• In schools, for kids learning to express themselves through art
• In art therapy or similar
• To showcase how we are unique in more ways than one, etc.

I'd love to further explore this idea in an animation context. Maybe by creating a 2D fingerprint animation?