Inaccessible Void: A Junior Self-Portrait Diptych by Anastasia Garachtchenko (2013)

Through my diptych I tried to communicate the inaccessible talents that each of us have. As a child a had a full fledged belief that I didn’t have any talents. Through the image of the parking lot I tried to convey the message of void, how I believed that I had no talent, but combined with the image of the lock I tried to explain how these talents are just locked away from us until we have the courage to try and find them.

The image on the left is of a lock on a sink with paint in the background. The lock shows inaccessibility to the sink, the sink shows a need (which in this case would be water), and the paint drops in the back show a problem. This connects to my idea of hidden talent (the water) being needed to wash away the feelings of being unworthy (the paint), but the lock (insecurities and self-doubt) restrains you from going out and finding your true talent which you can use to wash away your feeling of being useless. I used mostly red paint to contrast with the blue of the lock, and used a shallow depth of field to emphasize the uncertainty and ''messiness'' of self-doubt.

The image on the right is of an empty parking lot signifying the fact that before you discover your talents you are empty like a void, but that also means that there is a lot of room for the talents you discover. In this picture I tried to make the picture look washed out and faded. The color of the sky also parallels the color of the lock.