Alysha Picknoll

Willetton Senior High School

Year 11

Oil on canvas

45 x 60 cm

My work is a self-portrait, despite the absence of physiognomy. Rather than depicting my face, I have represented myself through the most pivotal of my childhood experiences. From the age of eight, I have accepted the role of ‘household chef’, on Saturday mornings my Plat au Choix: pancakes. My work depicts the family breakfast table, with highly saturated colours and a strong light source, to symbolise the potency of these moments in shaping my positive disposition, creativity, mindfulness, love of life and tenacity. I argue that personal identity is shaped solely through the formative experiences of our lives and cannot truly be seen in our external appearances (from the eyes of an outsider).