Unbreakable Frailty: A Junior Self-Portrait Diptych by Andie Burns (2013)

My diptych is based off of the oxymoron Unbreakable Frailty, which comes from my personal poem from English class. The poem is about how we have to let ourselves feel miserable sometimes in order to experience improvement, and how refreshing that process can be. I used the metaphor of cracked glass to represent that frailty in my poem, and transferred that to my diptych. Though the glass is cracked and looks delicate, it still holds together and looks more unique because of it.

The bird's nest and the jewels inside represent the unbreakable aspect, because usually nests are fragile and easy to destroy. This solid glass nest, in comparison with a normal one, can’t be broken. The gems inside are meant to reinforce that idea, because they reminded me of diamonds (the ultimate unbreakable substance). I used a wooden desk as a background because I felt it reinforces the absence of nature in the bird nest.

The colors of the two pictures unite them, because all the colors present in the background of the ‘frailty’ picture can be found in the jewels. They're also visually united because of the congruence of the two circular objects on opposite sides of the diptych.