Final Online Portfolio HPD Sharon Lee

The paper in our world, a world of paper. Paper has a lot of qualities and is extremely malleable to be able to be distorted into exactly what the person wants. Paper can fold, burn, tear, thin/thick, printed/drawn/written on, etc. Paper holds countless purposes in our world. Even though it is mundane and extremely common, it can become the most interesting/influential, whether that is being used as currency to help or corrupt, books to educate or misinform, letters to pour out one's thoughts, or even the toilet paper in our bathrooms. I portrayed how paper is not only integrated into our society but also, in a way, represents the qualities of it as well. People can be torn, burned, manipulated, and be at the will of another. I took inspiration from Reinier de Graaf’s verb list that explores all the different ways we can manipulate materials. I found a new way to manipulate paper: twisting, burning, ripping, and even more ways to integrate paper into my methodology. I handmade my own paper for my pieces deliberately to understand the labor, vulnerability, and transformation embedded in the substance itself. Through the process, I began to find the hidden world of paper as the paper I worked with my hands would breathe, transform, or even rebel against me. The overly simplistic qualities of it stumped me, and the material itself would sometimes be difficult to bend to my will. However, it was through these struggles that I learned that paper is almost a living, responsive material with its own logic and identity. I found myself connecting with the locked-away memories, connections, and ideas that were hidden on the white sheets of paper. I reconnected with my family, culture, and history as I felt the rough paper picture books of the life I led and the ones my ancestors led. Sensory memories of its qualities of how it cut and comfort me. The everyday joys of the ordinary were unlocked as I realized how paper was present with me every day. The papers that held my words, art, ideas, and emotions began to take form beyond the confines of the rectangular, white box they were held in. In my old maps, I saw the many unraveling trips of my childhood and how I began to unravel in my journey on finding my inner self as I reflected on my younger self. In my Polaroid photos, the paper began to seep out the sensory details of a captured memory. Traditional thread books became planets of countless stories ready to be opened and shown to our planet, our world. The paper fans I would make in class would crumble in and out, breathing alongside me. As much as I transformed and reintegrated the paper in my life, it actively began to change how I viewed myself in the day-to-day snapshots that build my identity.