Planned Impulse: A Junior Self-Portrait Diptych by Annaka Olson (2013)

My diptych is a visual representation of the idea that our impulses reveal who we really are as people. This idea came from a poem I wrote in English class entitled ''Impulse''. In the poem I described various situations in which I acted impulsively and intimate parts of my personality were revealed. The phrase, ''on a whim'' in my poem directly influenced the left side of my diptych. The left side of my diptych depicts a pair of dice resting on top of a Monopoly board covered in game pieces and money. The money is symbolic of the success that can come from following an impulse. The dice are symbolic of the fact that many people consider impulses to be rooted in chance and circumstance, and are not reflective of who we are. The dice are still in color, while the background is edited to be only in shades of black and white in order to allow the dice to stand out from the background. The subtly colored reflections on the edges of the dice were also left in color to visually convey how our impulsive actions are vivid reflections of who we really are.

The line ''straight-edge punks and wannabe hipsters'' directly influenced the right side of my diptych. The right side of my diptych is dominated by a pair of hands with straightedge symbols drawn on. The straight edge symbols both directly reference my poem, and helps lend more meaning to the diptych. Straight edge symbols are drawn on before punk concerts in order to inform those around you that you don’t intend to drink or smoke. Impulses reveal our values and who we are just as clearly as large X’s drawn on the back of our hands. When we act on our impulses we are revealing our most true selves and our internalized values.

My two images are related because they both deal with two different perspectives on impulse. They are also visually related because both predominantly feature large mostly black and white objects (i.e. the hands and the dice). The edge of a piece of monopoly money also directly lines up with a piece of wood on the other side of the diptych. I also brought out the red tones of the wood and put a warming filter on the black and white background on the left in order to unite them visually.