Art Portfolio Introduction In a school visit and poetry reading, award winning writer and poet Kaveh Akbar told my class, in response to a question about finding one’s original voice in words, that there is no one else on earth with the same background, experiences, memories, preferences and tastes as each one of us did. Through this fact, all the words we write are unique to ourselves and the conglomeration of experiences that make us original. I apply this philosophy to my art as well—through my art, I am able to express the distinct originality that I carry by the mere fact that nobody else shares all of the same experiences I have. Moreover, through art, I am able to create something unique, to partake in a grand human tradition of creation for the sake of beauty, expression, and joy. So I use my art to demonstrate all the variety of experiences, memories and opinions I hold that make me a person unlike any other. From my deep connection to the classics on both an academic and emotional level, to my passionate advocacy of women’s rights and the collective female experience, to my exploration of self-understanding and who I am as a person, art presents the many different facets of me, then combines them to gradually paint a picture of who I am.