Koosmann - Project 2 - Essay

This project was centered on our identity and how we see ourselves as individuals; asking ourselves who we are and what makes us who we are. The first phase of this project was answering a series of questions about our parents, friends, religion, and our sexuality but the question that stood out to me the most was about our nationality. This question stood out to me because my nationality is something I do not think about of a daily basis as appose to an African American or Asian women would. As I thought about my nationality and the nationality of the people around me I realized how black and white (figuratively speaking) our world views nationality and where people come from. We are either, Caucasian, Asian, Hispanic, or African American. There is no middle, no specificity of where people come from.

            I had realized that everyone sees me as a young adult white female, that’s it. As I had this realization I felt like I was keeping my ancestors in the dark, never letting anyone see them.  I always knew that I was from many different places but I never brought it up in a conversation unless someone specifically asked.  So in light of this project I wanted to let people know who I am and what makes me, me.

            The title of this piece of work is WHO I AM. It is a booklet that pays homage to where I come from. The first two spreads are text that briefly says that I am more than what society sees as a young adult white female.  The next few spreads are illustrations created in Adobe Illustrator of simple landscapes or landmark in the places that I am from with text on each page saying “I am German, Norwegian, Swedish, French, and English” each in their own language”. I felt that putting that specific text in different languages instead of just leaving it in English gave it a more sincere feeling. After the end of those spreads I confirm, in a way, what the “I am German, Norwegian, etc.” text implied saying, “I am more than meets the eye.” All of the text through out the booklet is in my handwriting; I felt it made the piece more personal. 

            All of the pictures were created in illustrator. This was a challenge for me because there were a lot of details in a few of the pictures including Germany and France. The very first draft I had was with the countries flag in the background behind the text. I felt like this maybe to simple so I decided to put backdrops of each city or a landmark instead. The first time I drew them out they ended up looking a bit sketched and undone. I quite liked this because I thought it gave the pictures a childish quality that I thought went well with this piece as a whole.

            Overall I am quite pleased with out this piece turned out.