Alexander Gizersky
Sunday, December 3rd, 2006The Steps of My Life
My collage is a representation of my life. Rather then focusing on a particular event or aspect of my life, I chose to illustrate the entire thing. Out of thin pieces of wood, I created a stairs consisting of 18 steps. Each step symbolizes a year of my life. With every step up the stairs, I get one year older.
I filled in the space beneath each step with various fabrics and materials. The different textures and combination of colors of fabrics that I used possess a certain significance; each depicts an important event in my life that had occurred during that particular year.
I made a bright yellow sun (out of yellow fabric) shine through a blue sky (made out of a cotton material) upon the stairs. The sun’s rays symbolize rays of success shining down on me. As I progress up the stairs of my life I get closer and closer to the ultimate triumph, what ever it may be.
I will explain what each fabric underneath each step represents, year-by-year.
1988- I was born on June 9th 1988. A felt it was appropriate to represent my birth with a button of a bright red heart.
1989- In 1989, at the age of one, I learned how to walk and talk. The two distinct, yet, similar colors (bright yellow and dim orange) represent my newly learned functions.
1990- In 1990, I learned how to ride a tricycle. I used a piece of my old jeans and two metal circles to represent this event.
1991- In 1991, I learned how to swim. I used a blue silk fabric to represent water.
1992- In 1992, I visited my grandparents in Ukraine for the very first time. I used a bright orange colored fabric to signify this event. I chose this color because it is a distinctively different color from most of the surrounding in Moscow, where I’ve lived my entire life prior to this visit.
1993- In 1993, I learned how to read. I pasted different letters onto a blue fabric to demonstrate my learning of the alphabet.
1994- In 1994, I went to kindergarten. I used a soft pink and white material to symbolize this event to emphasize the purity of a child’s mind as he begins his academic journey. I also pasted simple mathematic equations in the fabric to represent the fact that it was kindergarten.
1995- In 1995, my family and I moved to the United States. I used a zipper to represent this epic transition in my life because it symbolizes the opening to a new world.
1996- In 1996, I joined the St Marks basketball team. I used a rough orange (basketball colored) fabric to suggest the game of basketball.
1997- I first started wrestling in 1997. I wrestled Judo (a style of wrestling). Since the uniform in Judo consists of a solely white jacket and white pants, I used a white fabric to represent this year.
1998- In 1998, my mother and I flew back to Ukraine to visit my grandparents. For this year, I used blue and yellow fabrics to show the colors of the Ukrainian flag.
1999- In 1999, my grandparents, along with my other grandmother, and my aunt, uncle and cousin immigrated to America. I used blue, white, and red fabrics to depict the color of the American flag. Also, one can clearly see a black strip next to the other three fabrics. This strip of black leather represents the death of my grandfather, who passed away on January 21, 1999.
2000- I went to Junior High School in 2000. I used a stripe of black jeans to represent year 2000 because it was the year of Y2K. There was a lot of chaos that year since no one knew what was going to happen.
2001- In 2001, I had my Bar Mitzvah. I used a light blue and white fabric to represent the Israeli flag and glued a Jewish star at the top of the step to emphasize this monumental Jewish celebration.
2002- In 2002, I was accepted into Midwood High School. I used a piece of a multi-colored dress shirt to show that I was starting High School and was growing up. The different colors symbolize the different changes I went through in H.S.
2003- In 2003, I got my first real job. To represent this, I used green and white paper and several pennies, nickels, and dimes.
2004- In 2004, two significant events occurred. First, my sister, with whom I was extremely close, moved out to Florida. And second, I became the captain of the Midwood Wrestling Team. The pink fabric represents my sister moving out, and the beige material represents me becoming a captain.
2005- In 2005, I won the gold medal at the New York Empire State Games in Greco Roman Wrestling. I used a golden ribbon to symbolize my gold medal.
2006- In 2006, I graduated from Midwood High School and began my journey in Baruch College. I used the white and blue strings from the tassel from my graduation to represent these events.
