Westosha Art: Create > Visual Metaphors

Create > Visual Metaphors

Goal: Develop a visual metaphor diptych for each of the following prompts

Concept: Creating a personal metaphor reminds you of your own greatness and how you can serve and inspire both others and yourself.

A metaphor is defined as a figure of speech, or something that we use to replace "normal" words in order to help others understand or enjoy our message. A visual metaphor is the representation of a person, place, thing, or idea by way of a visual image that suggests a particular association or point of similarity. Metaphors are ways of thinking and ways of shaping the thoughts of others.

“In metaphor, you are really taking two different elements and bringing them together to form a third,” said Mr. Lyons, 84. “It’s like Dylan Thomas, his use of the word ‘green’ in one of his poems, where he places it changes the implications of the color.” > http://goo.gl/TmbkBc

1. Read > Your Life Metaphor Matters > http://goo.gl/0OMjzy

Studio Activities: Metaphor Diptychs

Diptych 1:

Create > Significant Individual Metaphor

Choose a historical or contemporary individual that has inspired you and write their name
Find a quotation by or about the significant person and copy it.
What image, object or place comes to mind when you think of this person and the quotation?
Write your response and make a diptych photograph that captures this

(maybe juxtapose a portrait of the individual or the quote with your original metaphor photograph)

Diptych 2:

Create > Parent, Relative or Friend Metaphor

Choose a relative or friend that has inspired you and write their name
Write below a quotation, lyric or passage that they chose because it is a favorite of theirs.
What image, object, or place comes to mind when you think of this person and the quotation?
Write your response and make a diptych photograph that captures this

(maybe juxtapose a portrait of the individual or the quote with your original metaphor photograph)

Diptych 3:

Create > Musical Lyrics Metaphor

Choose favorite song and write the lyrics below.
What image, object, or place comes to mind when you think of this?
Write your response and make a diptych photograph that captures this

Diptych 4: Personal Metaphor

Develop > Personal Metaphor Statement

Here is how to craft a personal metaphor statement for yourself

Identify a solution or outcome that is desperately needed in the world or your community.
Identify and element or subject in nature that inspires you.
Identify the qualities within that element that inspires you.
Identify who it is that will benefit from your solution.
Identify what they will then be able to do as a result of learning of your solution.

Now put it all together and fill in the blanks with your responses.

Complete the sentence and post it to the community.

I am a __(2)__, who __(3)__, who helps __(4)__ to __(1)__ so that they may __(5)__.

Create > Personal Metaphor

Use the prompts from the other diptych metaphors to help you.

Also consider:

What hobbies do you have?

What do you spend time doing?

What do you collect?

What events in your life had a profound effect on you?

What things do you feel a special connection with.

Trigger Mechanisms: Comparisons, Analogy, Juxtaposition

A Westosha Art Student’s Personal Metaphor Example:

How can an image of a street be a personal metaphor?

Consider the symbolic nature of an image of the street you live on or a street you travel daily.

Compare streets and life:

both evoke thoughts of a journey
Both take us somewhere
Sometimes we don’t know where they end up (look at the images, is that represented?)
You travel roads everyday to get places, you live life everyday to take you places.
The road leads to the future just as your life keeps moving forward.
What do you think the artist meant by fracturing the image?