Nicole

Micah Lexier, A Portrait of David,1994.

After learning about my inspiration (A Portrait of David) I immediately knew I wanted to create a self portrait about acceptance of commonness. Since my name is very common within my age group I thought it would be easy to use other people to represent me and everyone else like me. I truly believe that an easy way to acceptance is repetition, so I wanted to use different medias to achieve this.

I knew I wanted a recording of some sort to showcase the different Nicole’s I know. Though at first I was going to pull a similar stunt to the “A Portrait of David” and post a video publicly online asking Nicole’s around the world to submit a recording of themselves saying their name, but due to time constraints I decided to only ask the people close to me. Thankfully, I know many Nicole’s. The second piece of the portrait was suppose to be a casting of my own hand in the handshake position. This was going to serve as the display and interactive piece during the critique. A push to play button containing the recording of the Nicole’s was going to be in the palm of the hand casting to imitate the act of first impressions. But again due to time constraints and negative funding for this project I decided to scrap this idea.

I had the idea to use a mirror since it can be another form of repetition. The obsession to looking at myself was the perfect contrast to the the indifference I feel looking at my name. So I borrowed my friend’s mirror and wrote the first sentence of the letter repeatedly with a red sharpie. The combination of this, a bigger red push to play button, and a hello my name is sticker became the final product.

While setting up for the critique I thought a blank wall would be the best way to display the mirror, but I came to realize that the surrounding was way too busy and it lost its intimacy. I decided to use the setting to my advantage and put up the mirror by the window to create another element. Everyone who came to look at themselves had the ability to people watch and while listening to the recording get the idea of who Nicole really is. Is it the person looking at the mirror, is it the people outside, or is it the artist. It seemed that the more people involved in this project the more it represented me.

This project was a roller coaster of emotions, it was funny, sad, and calming. But, most importantly, it was rewarding. After repeatedly exposing myself to my name like never before, I can say that acceptance of my name is more than embracing what was given to me. It is also finding the beauty in commonness. Getting excited when someone introduces themselves with your name or sharing the same experiences growing up. The uniqueness of others is highlighted by the similarities we share and I think that’s beautiful.