taking on roles in your artwork...

After today's performance imaging conversation i have been thinkging alot about what it means to step out of your comfort zone and really put yourself "out there" with your artwork. In most of the pieces that I have shown so far I have been the subject in my pieces. I have put myself in the role of a soldier, a woman soldier. I believe that this has truely helped me to futher understand and absorb the comlexities I am dealing with in my topic, "women in war, women as aggrressors, or violent individuals." The act of putting myself in the mask of another individual or dressing up like a soldier, shooting a gun like a soldier, etc. can truely make you empathize with how someone might act the way they have. And not only that, but I really liked what paul said today, that when you put yourself in a piece you truely leave it open for interpretation, you leave it open for people to take it the wrong way, but that risk can make your work even more substantial. Therefore, I am going to keep using myself for this project (not saying that I will not use others as well) and explore how deep I can get emotionally into the subject, hoping that the more personal that I can make it for myself the better the work and and overall growth I will gain from my efforts.