Through these series of art, I will portray both the good and bad side of my family relationship. Note that I am a happy person and would never exchange any one of my family for anything.
Children make mistakes but so do our parents. No one is perfect, and although I have my own battles and defeats, I just know my family will be the one that may heal me in the end. They’ve done their best to take care of all of us.
Some days they may be tired, but some days they may spoil you with all the love they could give. They are the ones who raised me to be the independent, kind, and patient child that I am. They put food on our table three times a day. They placed us in good schools with top education. They buy us the toys we want.
They hide their struggles so we would only know happiness. And for that, I am forever grateful to be their child.
The theory I used is related to Dramaturgy proposed by Goffman in 1972. His theory talked about how life is like a never-ending play where people were the actors. We live in a stage we call life; we learn how to play our assigned roles from the influences in our lives. That was the meaning of Dramaturgy theory (sparknotes, n.d).
Through my paintings it depicts how I am the protector, and sometimes the therapist, of my family. I make sure that peace is kept in the family, and if my parents or older siblings needed to express their emotions, they can always come to me as it was my role in life to protect this family.
PERCEPTION
This is how I see my parents.
This is how I see my parents. My dad, now, spent most of his time taking care of my brother and I (my mom oversaw my two sisters, so this is my perception of the two). My dad is very manly, but the way I see it he’s also quite motherly, that’s why I portrayed him as a woman.
My mom loves to dress up, but because she works most of the time, I portrayed her with a suit and a cigar (no she doesn’t smoke). The eyes behind them are of how the situation was quite abnormal, as it usually was the other way around. But I love my abnormal family, this is just who we are.
“SAME HEART, SAME MIND”
This art depicts how similar I am to my dad (on the right).
People would tell us we look alike; little did they know even if our personalities are the same too. Because of this my mom is twice as annoyed.
My dad is pretty much my best friend, he always understands me, allows me to do the things my mom told me not to and he listens for reasoning before disagreeing. I always go to my dad for any advice, and sometimes whatever future response he will give, I already have in my mind.
“GOOD GIRLS DO WHAT THEY’RE TOLD TO”
At a young age I was raised to take care of my older siblings and help my parents out.
At a young age I was raised to take care of my older siblings and help my parents out. It came as a natural thing for me to put others before myself. My eldest sister is a smart kid, she would always focus on her studies and spent most of my childhood time abroad.
My second sister had anger issues and would bully my brother and I. She was always different as a child and more mentally aggressive not only towards her family but friends too. Therefore, my parents required me to take care of her and protect my brother, even though I didn’t know how to.
TV ROOM
I spent years of my childhood watching movies by peeking through the door.
I spent years of my childhood watching movies by peeking through the door. The reason for this is that my second sister would always throw a tantrum and would sometimes kick or throw things at me and my brother if we stepped foot in the same room as her. She always wanted her privacy.
This art may not look like anything, but this was the source of one of my many traumas from her. Every day, I listened through the door and the floor for her footstep so that my brother and I could finally have the living room. Although every time we went home from school our sister would still be away at her school, so we had exactly an hour of television for ourselves.
“BURDENED”
Being the caretaker of this family meant I took everyone’s opinions, and listened to their thoughts, and situations into consideration.
Being the caretaker of this family meant I took everyone’s opinions, and listened to their thoughts, and situations into consideration. I had to protect my brother from my sister’s bullying. Sometimes dad would come home in a bad mood and knowing how naughty my brother was, I stayed by my dad to calm him and make him happy before my brother saw him.
My mom would be busy taking care of my second sister too. She spent most of her attention on my sister for everyone’s sake. Yes, it was tiring, but you get used to it and you think to yourself that you’re doing everyone a favor.
OPINION
I’m quite a religious person. I based most of my opinions on thinking “what would God have me do?”. I made sure that in life no matter how bad it gets, no matter how many bad people and betrayals God has set in my path, I must keep being a good person.
We live once, and only once. I’d rather live that life making a good impact on people around me that includes my family and of course me.
I am a good daughter, sister, and friend, not a lot of people will be good to me and I will not like everyone but that’s the way life is.
Back to the theory, we live to learn how to play our role, whatever and whoever comes into my life I make it a sign to better and improve my personal development.
