Ellania Nym (Diana Diaz Self-Portrait)

  

Ellania Nym

Self-Portrait

Diana Diaz

Colloquium in ACM

Prof. Caçoilo

Spring’ 19

  

I grew up playing roleplaying video games like mmorpgs (Massively multiplayer online role-playing game like Fly for Fun, World of Warcraft or League of Legends). I always thought of myself as one of these characters as a way to help me deal with my own insecurities and weaknesses. When playing an online role-playing, game depending on the game, there are usually several kinds of characters, you can choose from. They all have different traits and strengths. There’s the sorcerer (wizard), the druid (healer), the knight (short range tank/ warrior) and the paladin (long range skill/archer). I would always end up choosing the druid because it was the safest one since it can heal itself and others. But who I really always wanted to be was the knight, which is that character who has everyone’s back (or front in this case) and that would fight for anyone against anything.

The traits of a knight are: fearless, and even though I don’t consider myself as fearless because most of the times, I am too careful, I try my best to protect others. For my self-portrait, I decided to create a small bust of myself and add things to simulate armor, and other things that would help me look like those characters. The idea of the bust is an honor to a character that not only represents who I am but who I’d want to become. It also represents family bonding, since this project took a lot of effort from my whole family who helped me through the process. I loved the process, and I loved what it allowed me to realize. Some artists that inspired me to do a bust were Paige Bradley and Jeff Koons. Eventhough they are both very different in style, I believe they have a very unique way of externalizing how they feel about their art. Their work is a representation of their own personalities. They inspired me to want to learn more about the fine art side that I have as a graphic designer
that I refuse to lose.

Since this was a long and tedious process, we kept changing from different materials to some others.
The list is as follows:

- Molding Clay

- Foam Boards

- Compound (Wall)

- Plaster

- Rolled plaster

- Silicone Glue 

- Beads 

- Acrylic Spray Paint

- Primer Filler

- Primer

- Wood Filler

- Putty

- Fake Eyebrows

- Fake Eyelashes

- Fake Wig

- Wires for the ear’s shape

- Tape

- Nest

- and the list goes on...

I want to credit my parents, specially my dad for helping me through this whole process. He did not give up on me and on the whole project. Now I know I am such a perfectionist and extremist when it comes to trying to do the best I can because of him. I want to thank my sister also. And last but not least, Prof. Caçoilo for creating this project. I know it was intended for us to find in us something we cannot find by doing what we do in our everyday life, in our comfort zone.

"He adopted a role called Being a Father so that his children would have something mythical and infinitely important: A Protector. She did not stand alone, but what stood behind her, the most potent moral force in her life, was the love of her father"