Fall 2024 Showcase Hawkins

The inspiration for my project stems from participating in the 2024 Summer Staff Creative Residency and exploring a project to remember my grandmother. My grandmother enjoyed keeping journals, writing letters, and taking photos. Following in her footsteps, I enjoy the same. Using palimpsest, the overlapping of layers of text and images from different times, I am using the idea to demonstrate how resilience is a process as well. Since resilience develops through layered experiences and builds strength through unique life challenges, I am focusing on my own personal journey of resilience. My project explores resilience through personal narratives, written journal excerpts as reflections of personal growth. I used journal entries, photos, stickers, and ephemera as layers of identity to symbolize memory and strength. By connecting personal experience to cultural themes, I am building a sense of self and identity. Tracing the past, which is never fully erased, I explored the intersectionality of personal memory and identity, while being resilient. Using the metaphor of the palimpsest, my project represents how resilience builds over time. I used journal entries and letters to capture personal reflection. The photos of myself, places, and people anchor my project to be a visual narrative. The stickers and symbols that I included add meaning to the layered story. The ephemera that I incorporated represents varying aspects of identity, memory, and resilience. I also incorporated photos using Photoshop to blend visual elements for depth. By digitizing journals, letters, and photos, I was able to scan and prepare the visual elements. Layering letters and journal entries over photos, I blended modes to merge the past and present. Thinking about how resilience should be visualized through layers, I adjusted the opacity to highlight hidden strength that can be found in the written word.

Beginning with autoethnography and reflection, I used my own personal stories as a cultural critique. Letters and journals reflect struggles, resilience, and identity. I linked personal narratives to societal themes to illustrate how resilience reflects cultural expectations. Each layer of memory adds depth to personal growth. My project uses palimpsest as a metaphor for resilience, while illustrating strength is built through overlapping experiences. Journals, letters, photos, and layers reveal how past challenges inform the present and reminds one of the importance reflections are to personal growth.

Being a Southern African American woman, I am deeply invested in the racial, socio-economic, and educational landscapes within the South. I want to use my academic knowledge and work experiences to tell untold stories and create awareness that leads to long-lasting and impactful change within the region. I am fully dedicated to capturing and preserving lived experiences and cultural histories through mixed media, photography, and video. Combining my gaze with personal and historical insights, I strive to highlight perspectives that enlighten, educate, and enrich others by telling stories using archival materials, like photos, letters, and journals, mixed media art, photography, and film. My ultimate mission is to create compelling visual narratives that connect the past to the present, evoke emotions, and inspire personal reflection.