Getty's Museum Project.pdf

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Part of A Beautiful Transformation

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My name is Kine’ Manley and I am a business major with a minor in Fashion Merchandising.
My interests involve anything involving creativity and expression. I love to draw, write (poetry
mainly), and make clothes or put outfits together. My art background is literally just dabbling in
many things in my free time whether it’s painting, crafts, sketching clothing pieces, or actually
drawing pictures. Nothing too extravagant I suppose I only draw to sharpen my skills from time
to time or just to have something to do.
In order to do this project, I searched and selected a variety of sculptures and attempted to
replicate them. I chose my two favorites to share. The first one is an African sculpture created in
1960. To mimic the dress I wore a fitted maxi dress and tied a scarf around me like a sash. I used
another scarf for my head wrap and lastly I used sheets as the extra fabric from the dress that she
holds to her sides. I also used a monochrome filter because my ensemble contained like five
different colors that did not go together. The second sculpture was actually way more difficult to
capture. I used my bed and sheets. I used the monochromatic filter again because there was no
color in the original. It was really hard for me to get this pose. I still couldn’t do it perfectly, but I
think I got the general idea. It was also hard to stay in the frame. I used my phone to photograph
both. I propped my phone on and dresser for the first one and on my bookshelf for the second. I
actually made videos of myself posing as close to the picture as I could and I screenshot the best
ones and edited from there. You can imagine me running back and forth from the phone and then
to my position because there were a few times that I actually forgot to hit the record button.
The first sculpture didn’t have an artist listed but it is an Austin sculpture “Deco
Woman”sculpted in 1960. The second sculpture is “Sleeping Hermaphroditus” sculpted in 1620
by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and it is in the Louvre Museum in Paris. I chose the first sculpture

because it exuded a level of confidence to me. Personally I think I have blossomed as a person
and I’ve learned to love and appreciate who I am and how I handle life. I think I am proud of
myself and this sculpture personified that to me because she looks dainty, yet strong and
goddess-like. It was fun to imitate. I chose the second one because for one I was afraid the first
sculpture wouldn’t meet the criteria if I’m being honest. Also, I thought it looked kind of
graceful although it gave me depressed vibes. I said that I blossomed, but there was definitely
rain before that happened. There was a time where I was still in transition from feeling down and
trying to find ways to bring myself up and this spoke to that time in my life. The figure looks
sad, however it seems at peace with it for the time being and they’re just trying to get through it.
I also thought it would just generally be cool to turn myself into an ancient art piece. I was very
curious about how it would turn out. I think both sculptures made me feel something and that’s
why I chose them. For this, they were aesthetically pleasing to me and not just an easy way out.
This was a self portrait because I quite literally became these sculptures and expressed their
auras and states of mind the way I perceived them. I think these sculptures exhibit stages in my
life and the fact that I can relate to them and become them makes them self portraits. They tell a
story.
I think this project was very creative. I thought it was also really fun. The most creative parts for
me were creating the dress out of random things and also making them my own with different
facial expressions, positioning, and editing. At first I was a little stressed when I read the
directions, but when I actually started it was a very fun experience and there were many
“bloopers”.
I think this was a cool project. I think this is something that I would do just out of boredom. It’s
exciting to see what you can do and I think you’re bound to surprise yourself. This project makes
you feel like a model and sometimes you see a different side of yourself through a lens. It’s
inspiring.