Unveiled Faces
Every Story Matters
COLLAGE SELF-PORTRAIT PROJECT
Spring 2018 — Souderton, PA
I was invited as a Teaching Artist to facilitate a breakout session in the 2018 Unveiled Conference hosted by Calvary Church in Souderton, PA. Unveiled exists for girls to discover their value through celebration, storytelling, and relationships. The 2018 theme surround the validation in everyone’s personal story. For my session, I taught the importance of examining our own story for the purpose of owning it and becoming the most authentic self we can aspire to be.
“There’s an unspoken message that the only stories worth telling are the stories that end up in history books. This is not true. Every story matters. We are all worthy of telling our stories and having them heard. We all need to be seen and honored in the same way that we all need to breathe.” — Viola Davis
Ms. Davis describes what it means to own your own story:
“This is who I am. This is where I am from. This is my mess. This is what it means to belong to myself.”
The young women participants attended the conference with a female mentor (mother, aunt, friend, teacher, etc). Using previously photographed and printed headshots, each participant used provided materials to create a collage representation of themselves on the glass covering their headshot print. The results were stunning, each as unique as their creator. I challenged the participants that one of their greatest offerings in the world is to fully embody their authentic selves. The collages were a medium for each person to examine their own story through their image, own it, and author its narrative as they expressed it in their own creative way.
Photo credit: Lauren Pupillo