Constructing an identity is creating your own definition of who you truly are. This could be done by differentiating your likes and dislikes, what you what to do or what/who you want to be associated with. Identity involves a person’s race, gender, background and other factors that makes up who they are as a person. This could be affected by society’s current view on how they see that specific type of group such as ones standing in the social class, whether they are rich or poor affects a person’s judgement. This is why stereotypes exist, because people automatically put each other in categories to easily identify ones value in a box.
My visit to Montclair Museum on Friday was a pleasant surprise, I did not know what I was expecting. What kind of art will they be exhibiting, or what the environment it will be. It was a good mix of classical, contemporary and non-traditional art. From the exhibit, Identity can be resembled through portraiture, mixed media collage, candid photography, and a lot more. 
One of my favorite pieces displayed in the museum is one of mixed media collage… As a mixed media artist, I appreciate this piece for its vulnerability and complexity. It shows that using other materials with different color, texture, and organic material can make up one beautiful piece of art. Just like humans, we are just like mixed media collage stitched up and glued up together. Through our past and our experiences, we learn, grow and evolve as a person. We carry these learning through out our lives making it a part of ourselves. Other factors such as our pasts, our cultures and our beliefs can make up who we are as a person. 
Another collage work is the quilt blanket, with the messages on it. Our society itself shapes us in many ways than we can imagine. Everyone we interact with on a daily basis helps us shape our identity. It could be your professors, your friends and classmates, or even the barista you buy coffee from in the morning on the way to school. This can affect our emotions, attitude and character. Social Media is the number one influencer in our lives. We are on our phones 24/7, if not on our computers and laptops. We literally cannot leave the house without our phones, or even go an hour without checking it. The people we follow, the things we see on our feeds can persuade our thoughts from our daily intake of information online. We have to be careful and to monitor who we follow, and what we see online. Although words and images seem harmless, they can be powerful and manipulative. We have to differentiate what’s the noise from the music. 
Envision, Empower, Embrace by Ben Jones shows such great complexity in showing the current issues this world has. It focuses on the ecological and economical current status. Ben Jones puts different photographic elements together and presents fire, explosion, chaos in the sea with one giant fish in the middle with Nina Samoan, a singer’s face in the middle. The trash in the image represents the chaos in our today’s world. It chas exes, target signs and question marks scattered all over the image. Oil companies can be seen representing oil spills, and the oil economy and how it affects our ecosystem. A big chair is seen in the middle of the image, signifying ones responsibility and and accountability towards these changes and issues in the world.
Nick Cave’s dreamy and mystical piece called the ‘Sound Suit’ is composed of many different elements. It is a man made of different fabrics and textiles, standing with different objects floating around him such as world globes (bank), abacus, doll heads, a pail and a train, ,as well as musical objects for example a jack in the box and tambourines. This represents unity and harmony through one’s relation to music. An angel can be seen on top, which signifies that these sounds are like music to ones ears. No face can be identified for it is blocked by everything around him which signifies how all of these materials represent who he is as a person and how he proudly stands tall with these taking up his thoughts and ideas everyday. This is worn as a costume by Nick Cave himself. You can only imagine the difficulty and the discomfort he has to go through in order to represent this for himself. 
One piece that stood out to me was the portraits of 4 children with embroidery works added onto their chests/shirts. Unfortunately I was not able to take not of the artist and its title, but the portraits together are strong enough to send its message across. Looking at these 4 kids with different gender, ethnicities and background, but are peacefully living in harmony and unity. The children with eyes filled with innocence and purity, as they look brightly onto the future with so much ambition and hope signified by the strong and empowering composition embossed on their chests as if they are stamped with great potentials. Out of every art piece in the museum, this is what defines ‘constructing identity’ the most as for these young children has their whole lives ahead of them. They are currently constructing themselves at this time of their life. They are learning their likes and dislikes, their backgrounds, and who they are as people. They are currently on the journey to figure out what they will believe in, their passion, their goals and dreams and who they are as a person.
The collages and mixed media stands out to me the most, not only because I’m a mixed media artist but because I believe that people are more than one thing and cannot be identified as a single being. We take up our past experiences and our current struggles as our main source of identity. Through experiences is where we learn and build our personality and construct our identity. Our identity reflects our past, present and future. How we handle things is what defines us. As we go through life, we go through hurdles that makes us or breaks us. As we get older, we grow and mature into a better version of us. Everyday, people try to figure out themselves one step at a time.

Shannon Linder, “Greviance Quilt’’ 2018   

Nick Cave, “Sounds Suit”

Ben Jones, “Envision, Empower, Embrace”