Blurry: A Junior Self-Portrait Illustration by Ean Pollock (2012)

In this piece, I am communicating that when I don't pay enough attention, I cease to notice the specific details around me and can only see the big picture. I envisioned this idea from memories of hours of driving through the Mojave Desert to get to Albuquerque. I took a risk in making such a simple illustration, but I still get the idea across: this piece means being unaware of my surroundings to me.

When crafting this piece, I had to choose an internal and external conflict for myself. I chose attention and details, as internal and external conflicts, respectively. I chose a flower to represent me, as it is very out of place in its setting, and a heightened view of the desert to represent a lack of details as it is very bleak and barren. It was challenging to make the spire look like a spire instead of a random shape, and I had trouble drawing a flower by hand. Because I made this piece so simple, it communicates my idea more effectively, as one of my conflicts is with detail. With few vertical lines, few colors, and fairly little contrast, this piece creates a tone of simplicity and generality.