“Futility of Knowing One’s Self” by Anna Overmoyer from the Anderson Arts Building

As seen in Yoga on and off the mat with Mel Thomas, this weekend Mel and I had adventures Of The Town, frozen and heated. Our last stop was Second Saturdays at the Anderson Arts Building.

At Luna Gallery, we met one of Rochester’s up-and-coming young artists, Anna Overmoyer.  Her intriguing centerpiece is titled Futility of Knowing One’s Self.  Below, Anna kindly offers her illustrated narrative of the centerpiece and its three companions.

Who is Anna?

I am a traditional and dimensional illustrator originally from just outside Rochester and an RIT graduate, recently returned from a long stint being an amateur art bum in Ireland.  Dimensional illustration means I create puppets and sets, light them and photograph them, like stills from a movie. It is a fun way of working because I get to be in control of every aspect in a piece. I get to be actor, makeup artist, costumer, set designer, photographer and director.  I’ve just opened Luna Gallery in The Anderson Arts Building to showcase the work of others as well as my own to this cool city.

Better yet come to Luna Gallery and meet her yourself Saturdays at the Anderson Arts Building.

Futility of Knowing One’s Self  Written and Illustrated by Anna Overmoyer (2014)

I’ve heard time and time again, there is nothing more important than knowing one’s self. Know your strengths and weaknesses.

But blind spots are something we all have. I have so many. It got to the point that around Christmas time I had a personal crisis in which, the person who I thought I was, was completely different than the person that my close friends and family knew me to be.

Anybody who knows what it feels like to be so sure of something for so long just to find out that it’s misguided, knows it’s a very scary place to find yourself in.

What had brought me to this point was the discovery of a blind spot. It was brought to my atten- tion by one whom I trust and respect a great deal, that I am impatient and intolerant of other people. It was obvious to everyone but me, and I think the only reason she felt comfortable mentioning it to me at all was because she thought I already knew.

In order to fix this huge character flaw I tried to re-figure who, exactly, I was. This was all in an effort to improve myself, but it ironically lead to a period of useless self centered-ness. I went through pic- tures and diaries and things like that to try to pinpoint when my intolerance began.

Then I began to realize how stupid that was. If I can’t trust my self-perception now, what made me think I could trust the perception of myself years ago. All I have to go on are snippets and my own biased accounts of things that have happened in my life.

So, while I was struggling through this, I found relief in these things:

There are things that I’m good at and things that I’m bad at. I can’t be sure which are which, but I do know what I love to do.

There are people that love me, and people that don’t. I can’t be sure which are which, but I do know whom I love.

I have good character traits and bad character traits. I don’t know what they are, but I have the ability to forgive everyone else for having equally bad character traits, and loving them anyway.

SEE ALSO

A kicking First Friday at Anderson Arts Building

A collage homage to the Public Market with Lynne Feldman

Jill Gussow’s homage to the raucous crows of the South Wedge

Antidote for the Doldrums. Join us for another visual conversation with artist Judy Stewart Gohringer from the Anderson Arts Building

Photographer Michelle Turner joins our visual conversation