Do You See Numbers?

For the first action project of my Winter Term, in my STEAM class, System & Models, we were asked to create a visual art piece of our choice. The art piece had to be backed with a strong artist statement. There was plenty of different points we had to hit and research we had to do. That includes all the personality tests that we had to take. I chose Myers-Briggs and the DISC tests to help you understand my piece! I relay loved this project. Even though I'm not a fan of visual art, and that's not what I do, I truly do respect the visual arts a lot. The influence visual art has in the world is obviously apparent. I'm a wordsmith, which is my forte of art. As you probably can tell, I had some difficulties with the artistic vision, but I took another approach. Please view my action project below!

DNR. “Numbers” 2017. Chicago

My piece, "Numbers," is made up of ink pen on 9.75 x 7.50 sized composition notebook paper. I try to visually represent myself through numbers. The 89 and 44 represent the streets I grew up on. 9-5 crossed out represents my love for self-management. This also represents my past, present, and I hope the near future.The feelings of "doing for yourself," has always made me feel good. There’s this hidden connection to currency.

In class, we were asked to take several different personality tests. The most important tests that I took were the Myers-Briggs test and Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, Compliance (DISC) test. The Myers-Briggs is a large database of results where they give you a series of questions and then give you a 4 letter combination in which they show you what type of person you are pertaining to the answers you submitted on the test. I got ESFP. Creepy enough, after reading all of the different types of people, I actually chose ESFP. ESFP is the "entertainer." Often the person who is bold and observant, but easily-bored and unfocused as well. I find myself being more connected to these characteristics then I thought. The DISC test is a unique test that tells you something about yourself by using 4 different pathways and splitting you up into them. My top two "pathways" were Influence and Dominance as I expected. Influence is my number one pathway because I feel like I really do fear losing influence. When people look at my art, they don't necessarily have to approve of it, but I do want them to receive and perceive it.

I once saw this bike experiment that I felt like challenged the norm. They took different looking people and made them do the same thing. There was a white woman, a black man, a white man, etc. They all tried to saw off the chain of a bike and let all of the people walking around react to it. The results were a bit displeasing. This really spoke to me because it showcases the sexism and racism that we all seem to witness every day. This project was also really important to me because it did challenge the norm and that was really my objective in creating my art piece.

The purpose of my piece is to inspire you to think entirely out of the box. Think out of the universe. The more original ideas, the more we progress towards a better existence. I want to say that the rubric is never said in stone. You can still “follow the rubric,” but you are set apart by the uniqueness of your creation. I also try to get across feelings of perception. The way I perceive my art is unimportant, but if anyone shares my perception then they will truly appreciate it, but the thought counts. I see this as an opportunity for people to take my art as their own.

I interviewed an artist that works at my school. Ms.Dianne. She creates human sized art through her own imagination. Her art is really amazing, to say the least. She uses rather inexpensive materials and creates rather expensive works of art. She said to me, "Viewers are given facts about me, the artist and my process and then they compare it with their views and have a more intimate understanding of my art." This statement kind of describes the type of reaction I want from people who see my art. I want people to perceive their own meaning.

The start of my drawing was kind of hard. I just started ripping through draft paper. Soon, I realized all I had to do was just stop trying to be the visual artist that I'm not. I decided to let my mind think for me. The roughness of the artistry is intentional to signify my lack of orderliness and focus. I started with simple numbers. I started to write down numbers that I felt were most important to me. My first number was "89."  The 89 represents the street I grew up on. 89th street made me who I am today. My second numbers were "9-5" which describe my aspirations for having a successful career. "9-5" is the typical "job hours." I express my loathness for this by crossing it out. The next number, "45" is another street I grew up on. It also happens to be the street of my grammar school. I also enjoy music and basketball. Those are represented by "23" and the music notes. "23" is representative of the best basketball player of all-time, Michael Jordan.

The idea came pretty easy to me. Conceptually, I really already knew what I wanted to do. Delivering my piece was something that I had to think about for days. After a lot of thinking, I decided to let my imagination take over while keeping in mind who I am as a person and what the tests told me as well.

Citations:
"DiSC Profile - DiSC Influence (i)." DiSCProfile.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2017.
"Entertainer Strengths & Weaknesses." 16personalities.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2017.