self portrait (elements of art)

Jun 6

Written By Gigi Lopez

self portrait (elements of art) by Daviana Marcus

first is line, of course,

there are so many you need to render my body:

from the curved inkbrush flicks of my eyelashes to the undefined curves of my figure

back down to the sketchy crosshatching to chap my knuckles, the elegant waves of my fingerprints--

I am a moving point.

and color, like taste

I want to try every palette, every flavor until one fits

there are hues in my overthought clothes,

there is so much intensity in my eyes.

falling neatly into values like a spiraling galaxy too large to fit in my brain—

you can see it in my determined pale smiles,

my carefree pink laughter,

my royal blue loyalty only a few shades darker than my cornflower tears--

but let's not get ahead just yet--

you can find shapes like endless circles in my eyes,

square-knotted friendship bracelet ellipses around my wrists,

triangles in the empty space between my fingers and painstaking hearts painted on my fingernails

and yet I am fully organic, whether I want to be or not,

I am undefined but for my endless texture

like so many freckles on my body, I feel in splatters of endless rain

that fall into so many rippling puddles

like my voice always seems to feel hoarse but I can use it to feel so much more,

my words are feathers and lead, leaves and lances, ink and blood like shouting

I am real, I am real, I am real.

I am multi-dimensional in form, you see

I stretch forward and back and around until there is so much of me

I am surprised it fits inside my skin--

if you think I am but one thing, I beg you to look at me from a different angle

again and again until you see something new.

and lastly, space--

I hope to use positive and not negative,

to leave the world with so much more than a self-shaped hole.

and of course, I am forever taking up too much of it,

but I refuse to apologize

refuse to be any less than I am,

I will not be an unfinished masterpiece

and I will never be forgotten.

Monster