Alterations

"Each telling of a history, speech, situation, proclamation, translation, or revelation had to be altered, at least a little, to fit its times or the customs of its hearer. And so convincingly did he have to sell his words, throwing himself into them with the passion of a true believer, that it became increasingly worrisome for him to remember for whom he had invented which chronicle, revealed what secrets, claimed which kinship, or inserted which omissions..."

This is a quote from "The Book of Portraiture," specifically the first chapter. The authentic, transparent depiction of the women I interview for my project is of the utmost concern of mine. I cannot deny that I have biases. All I can do is be honest with them. This is resting heavily on my mind these days.

Oh, and why did I post these particular pictures? Appearances and functionality of objects can change and so can the stories we tell to describe them. My guess is that the way I retell the stories about my curly hair or my blistered feet could also change over time. Memory also changes. The point is to make the effort to use the best pictures to tell the stories so at least they stay close to original intention of the stories they represent.

Portraiture - Photography

Aside from reading critical essays, reviews, and theory, I found an interesting book conveniently aligned with my project, "The Book of Portraiture" by Steve Tomasula. Each chapter has a different narrator. Each narrator searches for a way to represent themselves, either through stories, paintings, photography, or genetic code. I'm charting a similar exercise for myself. Today are self-portraits I snapped over the course of sixteen years.

Summer 2011

Besides working at the Wexner Center this summer, I've concentrated most of my effort at understanding how I fit into the Ohio Roller Girls. What better way to understand the difficulty of the questions I ask the interviewees of other women's organization then to turn the questions on myself. Asking myself what role I fill or how I want my fellow skaters to perceive me is harder to answer than, say asking myself what role I fill as a dancer in OSU's Department of Dance. I already have a feeling for what kind of dancer I am. After all, I've been dancing for more than twenty years now. In roller derby, however, I'm still trying to figure out the sport. The newness of my involvement leads me naturally to more questions, and after one year of skating, falling down, booty-blocking, getting hit by other skaters, etc. - I'm continually finding more questions to ask. My involvement in this sport spurs my inquisitive nature and that's just what I need as I travel to Washington state and Texas to interview other organizations as part of my Master's thesis project. Now that my commitment to the Wexner Center is completed, I have renewed energy and more time to devote to processing all this wonderful information swirling around in my head. I'm back to blogging and will be back tomorrow!