Selfie In A Mask

Title

Selfie In A Mask

Description

Hello, My name is Piper Mattern. I am a freshman here at East Carolina and I am majoring in Psychology. Growing up I’ve always been Curious of the mind. It is so fascinating to me that everyone is wired differently and no one really is or thinks the same. I’m not going into standard psychology I am proceeding the more behavioral side of Psych. A little bit more about me is I like to be around people, the beach and listening to music, I’m typically a person who doesn’t like to go out much but I enjoy nights out and just having fun.

For My Project I did the Selfie in a mask. At the beginning of quarantine I had noticed myself using A LOT of disposable masks, which is not too good for the environment . I decided to make that big leap and invest into reusable masks and the ones I purchased had came in a bundle. These Masks are from mykitsch.com (Links to an external site.) and they are protective wear masks and are made from 100% cotton. I did not pay much attention to the style or designs on them until the masks got here.Two of the masks that came have line drawings of women on the front, to show off body positivity. At first I really didn’t have the intent to wear these very often since most of the time i’ll just wear a black mask and go on with my day. Once I took art and saw this discussion project I saw the bright opportunity to finally get to share a story with these masks.

The soul purpose I chose this mask is because myself and many other people throughout quarantine have had a hard time with self image. Before covid I was an active person, I would go to the gym daily and just all around had good healthy habits. Once quarantine started and gyms closed down there was really no option but to do at home workouts which really unmotivated me. Then came this spiral of emotion about the ways I felt about myself. I know myself along with many people it was hard to stay happy with the way we looked, I felt as if I was having weird weight gain pattern and just started to loose my healthy habit. Already before hand I struggled with body image issues, and along with that, it just wasn’t the right mix.On top of our own struggles there is still and factor to add onto this…Social Media, with being at home and no other outlets or things to do I noticed myself on social media way to much. This also caused me to be hard on myself due to the fact social media is still portraying this deal life and body, pushing out that this quarantine shouldn’t effect me because these influencers still looked amazing and they made it seem like they were still in that active lifestyle as if there was no such thing as Covid-19.

This mask I chose with beautiful women on the front is to represent a more Body Positive mind and Attitude. Using this mask as a symbol no matter what our bodies endured during this stay at home lockdown, weight gain/weight loss we are still beautiful no matter what. Our bodies are amazing, they provide us with great strength. Our bodies are ours, all unique and special in the ways we were made.

My inspiration for my pictures included my biggest happy place, the beach. I already have a hard time with just simple pictures because I go back and pick out all the little things I dislike the most, but me being at my happy place really erased that factor from my mind and helped me focus on one thing, positivity. How it really represents how I feel about right now is letting go and just being happy with what is going on and what I have. Quarantine at first really stripped me from what made me happy and made me a very self conscious individual but over time I’ve developed a healthier mind a more Positive mind, with my mental and mostly my body. In this photo I’m happy, carefree and fully aware of the change I can make for myself.

This was created as an assignment for Susan Ludeke's ART 1910: Art Appreciation course.

Coverage

Atlantic Beach, North Carolina

Creator

Mattern, Piper

Date

2021-02-02

Item