Suffocated Respiration: A Junior Self-Portrait Diptych by Thomas Hoke (2013)

The image on the left of my diptych portrays a lone, healthy white flower basking in the ambient sunlight representing respiration. In my poem I say ''Optimism is always refreshing, like a breath of clean air or the smell of a crisp white flower after a lurid day in the office.'' The flower represents optimism because optimism can brighten even days that seem too lurid to ever improve. Optimism, much like the flower, has the power to rejuvenate one’s spirit and motivate one to accomplish amazing things.

The image on the left of my diptych portrays a lone, healthy white flower basking in the ambient sunlight representing respiration. In my poem I say ''Optimism is always refreshing, like a breath of clean air or the smell of a crisp white flower after a lurid day in the office.'' The flower represents optimism because optimism can brighten even days that seem too lurid to ever improve. Optimism, much like the flower, has the power to rejuvenate one’s spirit and motivate one to accomplish amazing things.

These two coterminous images represent the oxymoron, suffocated respiration, where the cigarette depicts suffocation and the flower portrays respiration. This paradoxical statement is meant to represent the contrapositive ideals of optimism and pessimism. Just like the carcinogens in a cigarette have lethal effects on the lungs, pessimism has an equally lethal effect on the brain. However just as respiration is necessary to a person’s vital signs, optimism is just as imperative to a person’s mental well being, because without it they are vulnerable to the harsh world that surrounds them. While both of them have relative beauty, the flower’s beauty comes from the visual euphoria it produces, whereas the cigarettes beauty comes from the desolation and isolation it leaves behind.