In my portfolio this semester, I have become hyper aware of the symbolism that I am creating within my work. These images are all significant portions of my life that I feel are mirrored in or related to experiences and emotions that every human being is capable of experiencing/feeling. I am dealing with issues such as pain, tragedy, happiness, love, lust, deterioration, etc. What I'm working with now is how to appropriately express these in my images. Obviously I do not want my work to be so explicit that it is easily solved within a minute of looking at it. So I'm playing with symbolism and mood to get the feeling across without having to say "this image is about my struggle with relationships" or "this image is about when my uncle died". Though the original subject of these images are specific to me, the outcome of the image and the way it is perceived should not be so specific but more of a hint or a general emotion.
I am struggling a lot with not putting in specific details that only pertain to me, but I fear that if I make my images so explicit it will make my work weaker. Using symbols/symbolism to intrigue the viewer and give them only hints to what the images contain I hope will allow them to be more universally relateable. And though I know it is far fetched to have work be universally relateable, I want the idea of 'humanity' to come through in these images.
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