Final Project: Doing Good by Any Means & Keeping Yourself

            The subject of my work is the various things I am a fan of, as well as the aspects of fallen heroes and anti-heroism in some of the works of fiction that I have included. In my project, I have included several images, some that I have taken myself, including a traced picture, and others that I have downloaded from the Internet. Pictures of some of my several collections are included, as well as my FBI hat, my PC, and my Witcher books. The images that I have downloaded include three characters from the Star Wars series and two characters from the World of Warcraft video game.

            As to why I decided to go through this concept, I found the idea of doing collages to be easier than the other options that I have had available to me. Considering that I have already done one collage as per the midterm assignment for this class, I figured, “Why not do another one?” but with a concept that is a bit more in depth. Initially, I decided to merely do a collage that included some of the various things that I like; works of fiction and things in real life. Then, while I was beginning the first steps of my project, I realized that the fiction works that I have included all had one thing in common: fallen heroes and antiheroes. I chose to stick with this idea because those two things are some things exemplify a concept that I deeply identify with, that the ends justify the means so long as you don’t lose too much of yourself in the process, each of the characters going completely along with this or partially against it. Not only that, but I have an admiration for such characters and their tragic back stories.

            An artist that I would compare my work to would be Andy Warhol, the artist that I decided to work on for the group presentation. Many of his self portraits involved cross-dressing, which most likely related to his very possible homosexuality. My work is similar to his in the sense that we both decided to create our art images with things relating to what we relate to, his being on a deeper level. For the lack of better phrasing, I think this project would convey to the audience that I am a massive nerd. With my first self portrait, I remember taking over forty pictures before I was completely satisfied, in contrast to my last self portrait in which I only took about five pictures, signifying that my “selfie” technique has improved immensely over the semester. What influenced the concept behind my project, as well as the improvements to my technique, was the “The Impostor, Trickster and Spy” reading of the book, The Art of Self Invention. Each of the three people in the chapter showed that they had a developed understanding of whatever they modified their self image for. Like Anthony Blunt who “understood the importance of public opinion and the value of a convincing performance” (p. 67). Like those mentioned in the chapter with their images and their corresponding means and objective, I developed my own personal philosophy through fiction.