So I just had the most enlightening conversation with my professor. He has basically released me from doing art that does not truly show my personality. If you view my blog (mallorydover.blogspot.com), you will see paintings and sculptures that are very nice...but still are not me. I've been doing a lot of commentary on social and political aspects when it comes to African American women and their hair, Female Genital Mutilation in Africa...and just about imagining having something that you do not actually have. He was just like, you are not an angry person, you don't seem to have any political agendas....but you are the type of person that likes to do things so that people will feel good. And he said that with the "wig" pieces, I seem to be getting a little closer to doing what you ACTUALLY want to do...except, I need to really embrace the hat thing and really start constructing these different identities.
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That's when I had to spill my guts. I admitted to him that I've always wanted to be a make-up artist and spa owner. How when I was a child, I always had little nail businesses and such. I told him how I just started making and selling hats and that I was keeping all those things separate from my art work because I felt like I needed some deep explanation. The reason I had been "hiding" is because I told a professor from my undergrad that I wanted to be a spa owner and makeup artist and he laughed in my face (a mentor of mine that I still have a lot of respect for) and basically told me that I need to be a serious artist, and those things do not factor in to that. Through that experience, I'd learn to keep those dreams hidden in my heart. But here in Grad school, all is fair game. The experience that I am creating will be like an installation piece: from the time the person walks into my spa, they will be changed spiritually and/or emotionally by the time they leave. Everything is relative and there no longer are rules in art.
I feel like I have been released. I have so much research to do and so many plans. Oh, he also charged me to do paintings with only bright colors since I love them so much. I love that he is really challenging us to do what we LIKE to do instead of what other faculty members are trying to make us do/or not do.
So again, I feel liberated and inspired!!!!!!!
ALSO-He was like, have someone take a picture of you standing by one of your paintings. And we just laughed because I'm such a light-hearted, easy-going,free-spirited person and it's really comedic when I think of how little is expressed through my work. Not to say that my previous work didn't mean anything to me and that I am not concerned with those issues bc I definitely am. But the missing piece to the puzzle is...well...ME!

by the way, this is the first time I've ever felt comfortable doing a journal entry on an online website before! I love this community!!!!