I Am.

So a friend of mine wanted me to post these for him.  So here they are.  For a lot of you this is simply a repeat of the real thing, but here they are anyways.  

I Am a Downward Spiral 

I am Wandering

I Am an Alcoholic's Daughter

I Am Ugly

I Am Beautiful

I Am Olivia

Phillip's Wall

I Am a Firefighter

I Am Phillip

I Am a Builder

Amanda's Wall

I Am Broken

I Am Amanda

I Am a Cleaning Monster

I Am Free

Aly's Wall

I Am Trapped

I Am Aly

I Am in Love with Me


I Am.

I have always had a fascination with personality traits, understanding them, accepting them, rejoicing in the flaws and quirks that make an individual, so it was natural for me to be drawn to portraits. When I studied the self-portraits of Durer, Rembrandt and Van Gogh I saw how each portrait showed a new aspect of the artist, showing an evolution of the art and their identity. I wanted to take a new approach to what a portrait contains, I wanted to show who the person really is and not just a physical representation.
The inspiration for this show, or at least the beginning idea, came from life. In high school I had issues with people judging me based on my appearance or just one aspect of my personality. In creating a show that literally breaks down a personality into single traits, I needed a way to convey that a person is more than just one characteristic, so the puzzle pieces became a huge part of my message.



Each piece is a unique part of the person, a way to convey who they are and not just what the world always sees. It is the small pieces of a person that creates of a whole. With each new piece, a different aspect, a different piece of the puzzle, needed to be captured. Due to the separation of the personality, a duality is created that exists within each person. With myself I used body image as a way to possesses my own duality with my looks. The two pieces, I Am Ugly and I Am Beautiful, serve to create a tension between being beautiful and ugly. And it is in the duality that people find a balance, a balance that makes them whole. 



The casting process is used to give a life size representation to add dimension to each piece. The cast allows me to place a tangible representation of the person on each piece. The three dimensional element allows a mood and space to be created just as Edward Kienholz. The drawings that are on each piece serve to clarify aspects of the person, to add yet another element to the work. The life size drawings are the assembled whole, the person as they are seen from on a physical level. 

As you take in the show, I invite you to take a look at yourself, to try and find what pieces make you a unique individual to the world.
Thanks,
Olivia Shumate

Go Griffins!

This weekend was a blast, for the most part anyways.  I went with Trevor to Pennsylvania to visit Seton Hill University in Greensburg and Kristen in Clarion.  The drive up was long, and Trevor had some freak outs.

Clarion is in western PA and out in the middle of nowhere, but considering that I grew up out in the middle of nowhere that was not a big deal.  But Trevor lost it when we were on this little highway at night.  I think that he really believed that we were going to die.  It was completely irrational.  But drama and Trevor tend go hand in hand.  I love you Trevor!

But getting to see Kristen was great.  I have missed her so much.  I did not realize how much until I get to see her again.  And then we got there just in time to watch Supernatural together, just like old times.  There was girl talk, sharing, laughing, junk food and mindless television.  Just like last year, and the three years prior to that.  

Granted, Clarion is smaller than Wilkesboro, but it is cute, quaint, and charming.  I loved it.  And then there was my school.  It was WONDERFUL.  I had my doubts, it is a Catholic Liberal Arts University and that scares me a little, hell it scared me a lot.  But I was reassured over and over that it Catholic in history more than anything now.  

It is a 200 acre campus on top of a hill and surrounded by trees and grass.  The main buildings were built in 1839, and the campus just screamed home to me.  The center of the campus has joined the building together with a bunch of corridors, and it made me feel like I was in a castle.  And I know how lame this sounds, but I felt I was walking in Hogwarts.  I am going to a school that reminds me of Harry Potter.  

This is the Maura Hall, which is home to the art studios, granted they are exiled  to the basement, but that is normal, we tend to scare people.

The center of the campus.  You can see the connecting halls.

Then I got to talk to a current art therapy student, and she showed me the art therapy room.  And my heart soared when I saw that the walls were decorated with Buddhist spiritual flags.  No cross or Jesus, not one single catholic relic in sight.  She was informative and I feel good about this program.  I still have questions, but they will be answered at some point.

Then I spent the rest of the weekend with Kristen.  We ate lots of food and watched TV.  Kristen and I would stay up late talking and I felt like nothing had changed, that the last 3 months apart had never happened.  And that lets me know that this friendship will last, it will stand the test of time.

I got back to Asheville early this morning and then went to class.  It was hard to leave Kristen, not as painful as when she left, but it still hurt.  I feel the most at home with her, Aly, Amanda and my parents.  They are my girls, my soul-mates.  But it is nice to know where is lives, to have seen her haunted building (Super exciting!) and know that she will only be less than 2 hours from me in Greensburg.  

I know where I am want to go to GRAD SCHOOL!  And I actually WANT to go there.

I Want This.

I finally have a day off tomorrow.  Between school and work, I have not had a free day in the last two weeks.  

But Thursday was interesting.  This family came into to Lane Bryant, it was a mother, father and their three daughters.  And the mom was finding an outfit for some reunion type thing.  And I was bringing her another pair of pants and I caught the end of her conversation with her husband.

"Babe, it is not the clothes that make you, but you make the clothes.  You are going to be beautiful no matter what you wear."  He was looking at his wife with such love and devotion.  It made me want to cry.  The woman obviously did not find herself attractive, and her husband thought that she was the most beautiful woman in the world.  I want that.