Author's statement on larger collection from which this image is taken:
I chose to examine the label pessimist. Even though I enjoy having fun and consider myself to be a mostly positive person, people have often told me that I can bring out the worst of a situation, that I seem to focus on only the bad of a situation. I personally think of myself as a realist, but agree that I can be obsessed with negativity at times. I chose to use the English Oxford Dictionary’s philosophical definition of pessimist.
“A person who believes that this world is as bad as it could be or that evil will ultimately prevail over good.”
-The Oxford Living English Dictionary
This definition seemed to resonate with me. It embodies some of the anxiety that I experience in my pessimistic episodes, however, it does not explain what that person does with pessimistic beliefs. Many of my beliefs and tendencies stem from nihilism. Over the years I have embraced my own personal philosophy on the matter. I understand that many of my beliefs are that of a nihilist, yet I embrace the empowerment of nothingness, and the opportunity that existential freedom gives me. I now consider myself to be an existential nihilist.
My collages are meant to appear dark and depressing on the surface, but hold some optimistic deeper meaning. It is meant to reflect how society can miss-interpret conscious concerns of a realist as the ramblings of a pessimist. Even though I have selected the word pessimist, my piece is tailored to inspire, despite the dark appearances. I have also arranged them in a way that depicts my growth throughout the years.
All of the images I have used are from the Flickr commons page, which I found to be particularly useful. The bulk of editing was done in Photoshop. Photoshop was particularly useful on the piece with the lettering across the man’s face. The text editor has an arch function that was made for my project. Below is a screen shot of my workspace during that project.
Author's statement on "Marked":
I chose a portrait of a tired looking character, to express the realization that you have become someone who only sees what is wrong. I chose to have words obscuring his face to represent the things that I put forth, or think about before revealing my real personality, or emotion. The deep contrast between the darker skin and shadows, and the white text allow the reader to clearly read each word, while serving to symbolically illustrate the dissonance between the way we want the be seen and the way that we are seen due to our actions. The words across his face have mostly negative connotation, yet are perfectly natural things to consider when facing a new opportunity or challenge. We are not focusing on what could go wrong for no reason, we are focusing on what could go wrong, so as to protect ourselves. On one more level, the words could also be representative of a mask obscuring true identity.
