Artist's Corner 3: Reflection
And How This Word Reflects in Art and Culture
This edition of Artist’s Corner will have a slightly longer read time than normal posts for this section.
During one of my many repeat-semesters of drawing classes, I started to explore emotions and feelings. I was also very much into taking lyrics from my favorite songs and incorporating them into my art. The lyric-word that I’ll be talking about in today’s post took on a completely different direction on its own and told me:
So I did, and we went on an adventure that explored the various meanings of the word
When I was working out the drawing, I was originally going to go with the lyrics from Christina Aguilera’s song “Reflection” that was written specifically for the movie Mulan. As much as I love the edited version of the song that the title character sings before she bravely goes with her instinct to disguise her gender and take on a different role for her family’s honor, I love the longer version that Aguilera sings in its entirety. Originally, I was going to say that what inspired my drawing was specifically the bridge and the final chorus of the song, but while writing this piece, I realized it was the whole song itself, even though the lyrics of last three parts are always the ones that make everything in my being sing.
“Reflection” by Christina Aguilera from the Disney animated movie Mulan:
Look at me
You may think you see
Who I really am
But you'll never know me
Every day
It's as if I play a partNow I see
If I wear a mask
I can fool the world
But I cannot fool my heartWho is that girl I see
Staring straight back at me?
When will my reflection show
Who I am inside?I am now
In a world where I
Have to hide my heart
And what I believe inBut somehow
I will show the world
What's inside my heart
And be loved for who I amWho is that girl I see
Staring straight back at me?
Why is my reflection
Someone I don't know?Must I pretend that I'm
Someone else for all time?
When will my reflection show
Who I am inside?There's a heart that must be free to fly
That burns with a need to know the reason whyWhy must we all conceal
What we think, how we feel?
Must there be a secret me
I'm forced to hide?I won't pretend that I'm
Someone else for all time
When will my reflection show
Who I am inside?
When will my reflection show
Who I am inside?
When the live-action movie came out, Aguilera did two new videos for Reflection in both English and Spanish. While I found the English version of the music video, I couldn’t find the music video for the Spanish one, but here is the Spanish audio version from her album Mí Reflejo. I personally love both of the new music videos, as well as the original, and I sometimes find myself switching between English and Spanish when singing Reflection. I think it’s fitting that she did the song in both languages because her mother is from Ireland and her father was from Ecuador. Christina herself connected with her Ecuadorian roots in her latest Spanish album, which I find to be just as beautiful, inspiring, and powerful as her first Spanish album. I know back in the day she got a bad rep for being too sexual, however, if you are able to get past the sexual aspect of her music, she actually has some very good music and lyrics that truly speaks to people. That statement is part opinion, part fact, and a hill that I am willing to die on.
The song Reflection asks the person to look inside themselves and see who they really are. This is what I thought this drawing was going to be about, and in some ways it was. When I look at this drawing, I see my past self as someone who was starting to grow out of her shyness and become braver in going for what she wanted. Realizing that she was tired of feeling stuck, and wanted to change for herself. Tired of contemplating on why she wanted a change and beginning to figure out how to make that change happen. Much like deciding to go back to school and moving away from my hometown to figure who I am away from what I knew. Much like figuring out how to go about writing on Substack and writing yearly reflections in anniversary posts.
But it became something more too. It became about exploring the different concepts of not just the word reflection, but also of what it meant to reflect from a cultural viewpoint.
The good, the bad, the beautiful, the ugly, the empathy, the prejudice, the sympathy, the love, the hate, the dividing, the bringing together, the apathy, the yin, the yang, and everything in-between.
The Connection.
The Dark. The Light. The Gray. And the colors within.
In the upcoming image you will see many things. You will see many words in different languages that you may not be able to read, yet all have a Connection to different aspects of being Human.
Of being Alive.
Of reflection and reflecting.
What (the) Colors (that you see Represent
Admittedly, when I first decided to fill in one of the faces in the color black, my teacher was concerned about it being viewed as me trying to do blackface-where someone of a lighter skin color covers their face to look like someone with black skin. While I did take pics of my face for reference to how I wanted the images to look, I would like to take a moment and explain that I was not trying to do blackface.
The black on the right face represents the dark aspects of being human, the dark aspect of life. The white color on the left face represents the light aspect of life, the light aspects of being human. The gray color on the middle face represents the in-between. The gray and the variety of colors in the middle image’s hair represents the Connection of the three, and that nothing is truly just black and white. Nothing is truly binary. The black/white hair on the white colored-in face and the white/black hair on the black colored-in face represents that within light there can be found darkness, and within darkness there can be found light. The purple color, in addition to being my favorite color, is simply there to add more background in addition to the gray colored background, and to highlight that there are words written that may not be too visible at first, because when viewed in person, this is a drawing that is intended for closer inspection.
Much like humanity.
That was the message for this image when I first drew it out, that is still the message for this image today, and I hope that will always be the message for this image in the future. To look closer and see what’s underneath.
Much like the field of anthropology does with the history of humanity.
Behind-The-Scenes: My Process
Sometime before I started working on the drawing, I had the urge to take some selfies during art class one evening. Art class is (apparently) (probably) one of the few places in public where people will not have other people rolling their eyes as they take selfies…for art! *dramatic gesture*
A few weeks after the selfie moment, I received a digital drawing pad from my boyfriend for Christmas. I was also reading a lot of Webtoons and exploring the idea of doing my own, so I excitedly brought my new drawing toy to class with me at the start of the new semester and fiddled around with it when I needed a break from whatever other project I was working on. The first two images are the early concepts for the direction that I felt pulled towards:
My teacher was happy with the way the digital image was and encouraged me to keep it at that, digital. The student in me was happy to do that.
But my artistic brain wanted to go further, and eventually won out (as it always does). So my teacher printed the image for me, gave me some tracing paper and then came the hard part, figuring out what type of paper I wanted to put the image on.
I eventually settled on gray paper, as I had not worked with that medium as a background before. I also explored which colored pencils that I would use to bring this drawing to life.
For the various words that define reflecting/reflection, I used Google Translate. I believe that I wrote about 27 to 30 words that either say “reflection” or are used to describe reflection or the act of reflecting/being in reflection.
I also learned that, in some languages, some of the words used to define reflection do no have a positive meaning. Some could be described as negative. Some could be described as neutral.
I regret that I did not write down which languages and the English translation of words they were.
I may go back one day and try to find those words. If I do, I may do a Part 2 to this post. I also still have another piece of gray paper, and have toyed with the idea of doing another reflection piece, either as I had originally intended and have the song lyrics with the three faces, or go a different direction. Art be funny like that at times.
Drawing Tablet: Huion Drawing Tablet
Color/Writing Utensils: Prismacolor Premier Pencil Set, 0.02 mechanical pencil
Item used to make the silhouette faces: A small container cap, tracing paper
Conclusion
Reflection asks (and sometimes forces) us to look inside ourselves. It asks us to reflect on easy things, yes, but also asks us to ask hard questions like:
-On a society level:
~Is what we’re doing today as a society what we need to be doing?
~When do we focus on the individual verses the community?
~When do we focus on the community verses the individual?
-On the individual level:
~What tweaks do I need to make to get to where I need to be?
~Is overthinking getting in my way? How often?
~Do I need to continue on the path that I’m currently exploring, or is it time to move on to a new path?
And so many more more questions that deserve our attention and need answers to.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, Fellow Musers. I hope that you’re enjoying these Artist’s Corner posts! While working on my upcoming post, I kept feeling a tugging on my soul to write this piece. I was going to write it and post it after releasing my archaeology post, but then for some reason I started feeling anxious, and my mind kept wandering back to it, so I wrote it out between working on the upcoming article-essay and my two jobs. As much as I wanted to wait, it felt right to write this, and to go ahead and honor its request to be released out into the world. Another labor of love that pushed me to follow its schedule instead of the one that I had for it, haha!
I was hoping to have the archaeology post out this week, but I’m still working on it. I hope to have it to you by either by Thursday (July 25th) or Friday (July 26th)! I’ll try to post a preview announcement+two images with text in the subscriber Chat two days before it’s released, and will do a preview in Notes the day before!
For those of you experiencing summer, or live in a hot climate no matter the season, remember to drink your preferred liquids and stay cool! For those of you experiencing cooler weather and climates, still stay hydrated and warm!
Carpe Diem and Huzzah!
~Kimber, Salem, and Nalia
I always admired how you always tried to get more in touch with your creative side ❤️