Human stories are strongly tied to places. Landscape morphology (the form, structure, and development of the earth's surface features) offers unique metaphors for communicating ideas about one’s past, present and future dreams. In 2019, I developed an assignment for my students, Mapping the Self, which asks each student to draw and paint an imaginary island to represent themself. As I was developing the assignment, I made several islands for myself and friends. This hand drawn and watercolored map, Sejal Isles, was made for author and creative writing instructor, Sejal Shah.
Betrayal Island (below) is an example of working with this medium and approach to visualize narratives from a specific time or life event.
The tool of every self-portrait is the mirror.
You see yourself in it.
Turn it the other way, and you see the world in it.
-Agness Varda (2009)