Self / Identity Publication

One thing that I had especially been looking forward to in my last year of study was that I had to create a publication / portfolio of my work over the past year which was to be submitted as part of the final assessment. I'm a perfectionist, I'm not ashamed to say. To be honest, I don't think I would be a true artist if I wasn't. And I also love books. A LOT. They're a slight obsession of mine so when the time came for me to make my own book.. well you can imagine that I was quite excited. There were so many options with what I could do; professionally bound, completely handmade, print it myself, get a printer to do it etc etc. I decided I wanted it to look as professional as I could, for a decent price (which wasn't the case in the end, but I'm still happy!) and also design it in a reasonably straight forward way. 

One of the girls in my class, Rachel suggested this online book publishing place called Blurb that offers a few different sized books and the option of hard or soft covers, ImageWrap covers or ones with a dust jacket, so I was sure that I would find something that suited the kind of book I wanted to make.

Anyway. I got onto choosing what I wanted and then had to teach myself how to use Adobe InDesign which was just so much fun! Blurb has a plugin for InDesign which has templates made up of the book pages, as well as the front and back covers so that made things a lot easier.

Then it was just a matter of choosing exactly what photos I wanted in the publication which was also easy, but the near impossible part was figuring out how I wanted the whole thing set out. Obviously I got there in the end..

So this is the version that I've kept for myself (the expensive one!) and Whitecliffe up in Auckland have got a version that I printed myself, with a card cover and not-so-glossy pages.

I was pretty stoked when this arrived in the mail, to say the least, but now I just want another excuse to design another book. I think I need to do a wee coarse is graphic design to get it out of my system..

Definitions

I love words. They're one of my favourite things. I'm not quite sure why they are but I have always had a fondness for them. I have a slight obsession with books as well which I'm assuming is where my love for words has come from. I love how some people are so, so talented when it comes to ordering words in such a way, that the end result is a beautiful, flowing sentence, which turns into a paragraph, which turns into a story that turns into a gorgeous, bound novel. 

I also love the dictionary. I can't remember ever being someone who has sat down for the purpose of reading the dictionary, but I would much rather find out the correct spelling for a word through use of a dictionary rather than the wee digital dictionary sitting at the bottom of my screen in the dock. I especially love our dictionary we've got here. It's falling apart like all fantastic, loved books should. When I finally move out, I'm taking it with me. I don't care how much my mum protests. (Just like I'm also leaving with her Edmonds cookbook, even though I got given a new hard covered one for my 21st. She doesn't know this either.)

What I love most about a dictionary isn't that it is filled with knowledge and words and generally consists of fantastic, thin pages (I do love those thin pages!), but it's the way the definitions are set out. I have absolutely no idea why this is either.. but I have always, always loved them.

So came into being, my epiphany. 

Instead of just listing all of the words that have been written onto my cancer portraits or trying to form them into some kind of story-like format, why don't I find the definitions of each word and make a list of them?? There's three pages altogether and they look pretty cool! Unfortunately I'm not skilled enough to teach myself how to manually resize images on here so I've just copied and pasted them so you can have a read. It's all of them. I didn't want to leave some out because I wouldn't know which ones not to show. Some of the definitions are actually quite lovely. When reading through them I realised that not every technical definition is exactly the same as what I thought it was (and probably the person who wrote them).

That's the end of my wee spiel. Have a wee read through them and maybe if you have some ideas on how I could display them, let me know :)

bold |bōld|

adjective

1 (of a person, action, or idea) showing an ability to take risks; confident and courageous : a bold attempt to solve the crisis | he was the only one bold enough to air his dislike.

will ²

noun

• (also willpower) control deliberately exerted to do something or to restrain one's own impulses : a stupendous effort of will.

brave |brāv|

adjective

ready to face and endure danger or pain; showing courage : a brave soldier | he put up a brave fight before losing.

strong |strô ng |

adjective ( stronger |strô ng gər|, strongest |strô ng gist|)

2 able to withstand great force or pressure : cotton is strong, hard-wearing, and easy to handle.

• (of a person's constitution) not easily affected by disease or hardship.

healthy |ˈhelθē|

adjective ( healthier , healthiest )

in good health: : feeling fit and healthy.

neo-Nazi

noun ( pl. neo-Nazis )

a member of an organization similar to the German Nazi Party.

• a person of extreme racist or nationalist views.

alone |əˈlōn|

adjective & adverb

1 having no one else present; on one's own : [as predic. adj. ] she was alone that evening | [as adv. ] he lives alone.

• [as adj. ] isolated and lonely : she was terribly alone and exposed.

freedom |ˈfrēdəm|

noun

the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint : we do have some freedom of choice | he talks of revoking some of the freedoms. See note at liberty .

lesbian |ˈlezbēən|

noun

a homosexual woman.

cult |kəlt|

noun

a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object : the cult of St. Olaf.

honest |ˈänist|

adjective

free of deceit and untruthfulness; sincere : I haven't been totally honest with you.

white supremacy

noun

the belief that white people are superior to those of all other races, esp. the black race, and should therefore dominate society.

skinhead |ˈskinˌhed|

noun

a young person with close-cropped hair, often perceived as aggressive, violent, and racist, and having neo-Nazi tendencies.

cancer |ˈkansər|

noun

the disease caused by an uncontrolled division of abnormal cells in a part of the body : he's got cancer | smoking is the major cause of lung cancer.

• a malignant growth or tumor resulting from such a division of cells : most skin cancers are curable.

 test ¹ |test|

noun

• an event or situation that reveals the strength or quality of someone or something by putting them under strain : this is the first serious test of the peace agreement.

liberated |ˈlibəˌrātid|

adjective

1 (of a person) showing freedom from social conventions or traditional ideas, esp. with regard to sexual roles : the modern image of the independent, liberated woman.

free |frē|

adjective ( freer |ˈfrēər|, freest |ˈfrēəst|)

1 not under the control or in the power of another; able to act or be done as one wishes : I have no ambitions other than to have a happy life and be free | a free choice.

individual |ˌindəˈvijəwəl|

adjective

1 [ attrib. ] single; separate : individual tiny flowers.

journey |ˈjərnē|

noun ( pl. -neys)

an act of traveling from one place to another : she went on a long journey | figurative your journey through life.

alopecia |ˌaləˈpē sh (ē)ə|

noun Medicine

the partial or complete absence of hair from areas of the body where it normally grows; baldness.