Message: I enjoyed this project much more than the previous one for many reasons. I felt as though we had much more freedom to explore interesting ideas that we had, and I really enjoyed making art incorporating my own face. However, the most important thing that I liked about this assignment was how much more freedom I had to communicate a certain message. Since the last project was much more aesthetic, I found it more difficult to successfully communicate what I wanted. In this project, I was able to include interesting subtleties and other elements in my artwork to make my message more intriguing and improve my final product in general. Specifically, the idea that I was attempting to achieve with this piece was the negative impact of apathy. I accomplish this goal in both very literal as well as more subtle ways. When someone first looks at my portrait, they would probably first notice the interesting color scheme. I chose to maintain a grayscale color pallette when drawing my face. This is because I wanted to create a stark contrast between the very drained-looking face and the colorful fire above it. This is my message at its most literal; I look calmly upwards at the flames engulfing my head and seem to not care. This is apathy by definition: it means “the lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern” (Dictionary.com). As the viewer can clearly see, I am not at all concerned that the fire will probably eventually seriously harm or kill me. Also, the background color behind me is extremely bland and uninteresting, insinuating the fact that I also have no regard for anyone or anything around me. This again relates back to apathy. Though what I have described so far is very bleak and depressing, I have chosen to include some elements of more positive emotions, such as hope. The prominent shadows under my eyes imply that my lack of interest in anything is extremely draining. Additionally, the bright color of my irises seems to show that somewhere deep down, I still wish to be more involved in my surroundings.