Masked Identity

For as long as I can remember, elephants have been a significant piece of who I am.  I have been called an elephant in both positive and negative connotations, so I decided to roll with it.

When I was about seven or eight years old, I began acting at a local theater.  My mom always told me I had a memory like an elephant, so why not put it to use?  This talent I had convinced me that having a great memory was one of the greatest gifts ever, so naturally elephants were something I always turned to.  Other than "Tales of Babar" being one of my favorite child stories, elephants to me gave off a sense of beauty and purity.  To me these animals were always so majestic and pure of heart.  

At a point, people also started to refer to me as a baby elephant because as a child, I was on a bit of the chubby side.  This was the downside of my great memory; remembering all the times I was poked and prodded for my weight always ring in my mind.  This, however, is where my idea for my mask came from. If people call me an elephant, become one.

The goal behind my mask was to take two symbols that represent me the best: elephants and lotus flowers.  I have tattoos of both of these on my body, so I decided to go to the extreme and become an elephant covered in lotus flowers.  Elephant painting in African and Indian cultures is extremely well known and symbolic.  Covering these elephants in detailed paintings pay attribute to the tribes and cultures they represent. 

I decided to use lotus flowers as my second symbol because of the meaning behind them.  A lotus flower grows up from under mud.  The deeper the mud, the more often the flower will bloom with exuberant color.  Through all my life I have struggled with things like my weight and appearance, all the way to heartbreaks and attacks on myself as a person. A lotus flower to me means that no matter how thick the mud, I will always bloom.  

The way in which I decorated the mask was inspired by a loose interpretation of Henna, which is an ancient Indian practice much like tattooing.  Repetitive patterns and small details of a limited degree make henna art pieces simplistic, but also extremely powerful.  

The prop I chose to hold in this piece was a palm flower wrapped in jade beads.  The jade beads have an elephant carving in them which tied nicely into the concept of the piece to make it cohesive.  The reason behind the palm flower was because of how, although the palm is dried out, it still has the ability to be something beautiful.  To me, this was a way to show that although things will be hurt or dried up, there is always meaning to be made.  

Materials Used:

-Wire 

-Tracing Paper

-Masking Tape

-Gel Medium

-Acrylic paint (White, Coral Peach, Seaweed)

-Black Ink