Freestyle Academy proudly presents

Pleasurable Suffering: A Junior Self-Portrait Diptych by Ethan Leikach (2013)

For the picture of the bloody ice cream my statement was: blood is like ice cream because every person has their own unique flavor. The blood dripping down the ice cream symbolizes the positives and negatives that are going on in a persons life. The catch is that the ice cream will eventually melt, while the blood will just dry up and stay put right where it sits. This relates back to my poem in that many people think they have it worse than everyone else, so they stab others in the back for whatever selfish reasons. This unfortunately leads those who get stabbed to continue the trend on and on. That being said the point of this picture is to say that we should scoop the blood off and then put the clean ice cream back in the freezer.

In the Pills and money picture my statement is: pills are like money because the more you have the less you feel inside. The money relates to having material possessions that are only worth the price tag and nothing else. The pills represent what people do to fit in, without realizing that the price they pay for fitting in for twenty seconds is far worse than they could imagine. the combination of these two things is the epitome of what’s wrong with the mindset of most people. Instead of thinking in a way that encourages us to do things that fulfill our desires, we act in such a way that forces us to do things that fulfill the desires of others; thus leaving a feeling of emptiness behind.

when I put these two pictures side by side they represent pleasurable suffering. All these things that we do to try to feel better about ourselves are just temporary solutions to a permanent problem. The only thing I’m trying to get across by displaying these photos is to simply do what you want to, what you need to, and what feels right. Don’t do something on a whim just for the acceptance of someone else, they should accept you for who you are.
Visitors 874