Entry 14 - Truest Likeness

These are all of my Facebook profile pictures, all the way from 2007 up to today's date. I believe these images make up a part of the truest image of myself. While not all of them are self portraits, these are the images I chose to represent myself on my public profile. I believe the reasons I had behind choosing each image at the time had to do with that image being relevant to my physical and mental state at the time. They are a timeline of who I was friends with, what I was interested in, and how my physical appearance changed. One thing that is consistent is the gaze. My gaze is always out towards the viewer which I believe points to me being a confident individual.  A majority of the pictures have become double portraits because I tend to choose pictures where another person who is important to me is present. By averaging all these pictures together, I know that you can get the truest likeness of me possible.

Entry 13 - Personal Identity

Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Young Girl Reading, 1770, National Gallery of Art (D.C.)

Oil on Canvas

(http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/art-object-page.46303.html?opensection=history)

Barring the physical differences, this could be a portrait of myself. Every since I was young I have enjoyed reading immensely and you could often find me tucked away reading something. She also has a quiet, withdrawn presence to her, much like myself.

Entry 12 - Power

http://www.timeslive.co.za/incoming/2012/12/03/dsc_1577-gaga-crowd.jpg/ALTERNATES/crop_630x400/DSC_1577+gaga+crowd.JPG

This portrait of Lady Gaga shows her power in terms of the affect she has on large groups of people. Not only do people pay money to come see her preform, they are engaged in what she is going on stage. In this photo, the audience's hands are up in the air, bopping along to whatever song she is singing. 

Entry 11 - Group Portrait

This group portrait is of the MSU Quidditch team from Fall 2010. I would place this under the civic and institutional category. This picture was taken to commemorate our involvement in the Quidditch World Cup that year. Our uniforms is a visual que to show our unity.

Entry 10 - Awkward Family Photo

(http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/2010/05/24/posers-2/)

Entry 8 - Stages of life

Childhood

My cousin's son is the embodiment of childhood in this picture. He doesn't really seem to be aware of what's going on, has a little toy he is playing with in his hand and has the open face of wonderment at something off to the side.

Young Adults

This picture illustrates young adults by the casual style of dress (on a football game day). The poses we are holding show at this age we still have some of the silliness of youth while transitioning into the responsibility of being an adult. 

Old Age

My grandma is in the lower left hand corner. In this picture she is surrounded by most of her family which I believe is one of the more important things to her as she still makes food and blankets for us and has holidays at her house.

Entry 7 - Choosing a New Portrait

Gustav Klimt, Pallas Athene, 1898, Oil on Canvas & Inlay, Erich Lessing Culture and Fine Arts Archive

http://24.media.tumblr.com/c87ae1975e8b5b01026a551faa7377c5/tumblr_mh54mjyxma1qgpi6ko1_1280.jpg

The strong stance of the woman in this portrait is what drew me to it. Her uplifted head and piercing gaze convey a sense of power and confidence. Also it's got gold leaf and who doesn't love gold leaf.

Entry 6 - Portrait, New Media

Marianne Caddy, Marianne's Nest, 2013

This installation is an example of a self portrait. By looking at this area, you can see who she is, what she enjoys. She creates a narrative by using the photographs to show the different people and memories she has. Even though this installation is already on a large scale, she has room to grow and add to it as she changes as a person. 

Entry 5 - Self Portrait & Deeper Meaning

Marianne Caddy, Pirate Day, 2013, Snapchat

Entry 4 - Self-Portrait

Both of these pictures were taken on my last trip to Disney World. The top one was a selfie while the bottom one was taken by my dad. Both are essentially the same picture but both give a different narrative. The key difference  is the one I took would be a self-portrait while the one my dad took would be a portrait.

A Self-Portrait

Because I used the front camera on my phone I was able to arranged the picture exactly the way I wanted to . I was able "to capture both what [I] see and what [I] want to project about [my] inner self." (Freeland, Portraits and Persons)

Freeland, Cynthia (2010-06-17). Portraits and Persons (Kindle Location 2092). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition. 

A Portrait

Entry 3 - Contact

Contact

To me this picture makes a very strong contact. This was at a secret santa party me and my friends had last year and whenever I see this picture it brings wonderful memories to mind. Everyone got to get together and share good food and presents with each other. 

No Contact

Even though that is me in this picture, I feel no contact with it. It was when I was playing frisbee golf with friends but I have no idea what I am doing. Even though I have strong memories attached with this day this picture pulls up none of them. 

Entry 2 - True Likeness

"True Likeness"

"Not True Likeness"

Entry 1 - What is a portrait?

A portrait is an image that usually has a person as the subject, and it informs the viewing audience of something about that person. The portrait utilizes props such as background, clothing, or tools of the subject's trade to indicate who they are. This painting of Marie Antoinette is a textbook example of a portrait. 

Jean Baptiste André Gautier Dagot, Portrait de Marie-Antoinette, reine de France, 1775

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Marie-Antoinette%3B_koningin_der_Fransen.jpg)

Decked out in her full royal regalia, there is no question as to her status. Clocking in at 5.25' x 4.2' this painting had to take a good chunk of her and the artists' time. With the modern widespread access to cameras, the process of getting a portrait of one's self is easier than ever. It even removes the barrier of having an artist trying to capture who you are. With over 200,000+ pictures being uploaded to Facebook every minute, your options are limitless in choosing a portrait for yourself. Today, the profile picture you choose is a modern reinterpretation of a portrait painting. People almost always choose a cover photo and profile picture that shows themselves, and tells something about them.

Teagan recently studied abroad in Italy.

Marianne recently studied abroad in India.

Eric recently had an internship at Google. 

Carly recently went to Disney World. (with me!)

I recently was a part of the Disney College Program. 

This modern interpretation of a portrait allows for much more flexibility. The portraits of today can change as often as you do. 

You don't even always have to have an accurate representation of yourself to get your personality through. 

This picture is not recent, yet the subject can still use it as a portrait. He updates it to match the time of year, or events he is involved with. This also fulfills the definition of the portrait.

While the concept of the portrait was created many years ago, the simple definition still applies today. As long as you have an image that has a subject and communicates information about that subject, you have a portrait. 

Hello!

Hello! My name is Rachel Rusco and I'm from Grand Haven, MI. I am a senior in the mechanical engineering program with a french minor.