Self Reflection for Artist
https://www.lienavayzman.org/
In a lecture with Liena Vayzman, it became apparent to me the value of self-reflection. Most of her work, like “13 Ways of Looking at Liena” is composed of photographic self-portraits like seen above and a poem about the name Liena. The poem is inspired by Wallace Stevens 1954 poem “13 Ways to Look at a Blackbird.” I personally found the poem not only reflective of the artist herself but also my own experience with my own name…and the “13 Ways to look at Yan.” In some ways it reminded me of the book Chrysanthemum, by Kevin Henkes. In the book Chrysanthemum is teased about her unusual name. But what is unusual? when is something consider usual? This is something that children are all exploring as they grow up and something Liena Vayzman explores in her own art.
https://kevinhenkes.com/
In Ms. Vayzman’s other work, “Gaps & Fills” she explores in a series of photographs the beauty of glitches, and how our human response is to correct the “mistakes” and “make sense” of a photo by what we believe to be true. But there is beauty and a new perspective to be learned from our mistakes. This is something children and adults struggles with. Not only realizing “our mistakes“ but also learning something from those mistakes.
It is important to allow our selves as well as our students to be self-reflective and observe the world instead of only being told about it. As artist, in order for us to be creative, we must be allowed to explore our world and have reflections about it rather than conclusions.