BP6: R&R (SPE 370)

I chose a clover to represent me. This symbol in many ways shows who I am as a person and expresses my past. To some people this is just a clover. They are found in green grasses in the spring time but after picked and considered lucky they are usually thrown to the ground.

 This icon is very special to me for a few reasons. I have a very strong Irish background and I am proud of where my ancestors came from many years ago. Another reason this icon represents me is because I was born on St. Patrick’s Day which is the day we celebrate the Irish descent. I believe it was gift that I was born on such a great day. My name is Jillian Patricia which is an extremely Irish name. The four leaf clover symbolizes me because my favorite color is green. When I was younger I thought all the green decorations on my birthday were for me, not realizing there was a national holiday going on at the same time. Green was always my favorite color and always will be.

 Lastly, I have four people in my immediate family. This includes my mom, dad, sister, and me. I feel that each clove on the four leaf clover represents each of my family members. I think it is special how all the cloves face into the middle almost looking like four hearts, and they all come together at the end with one stem. It makes me believe that even though each of my family members including myself are all very busy, and we each have our own lives we still always come back to the center just like the cloves do with the stem. We have a unique family bond that is as rare as finding an actual four leaf clover on a grassy hill. I believe that a clover icon will always represent who I am because there are so many significant meanings behind it. Seeing a clover makes me happy because it reminds me of where I came from.

In class we discussed Peirce’s 3 types of signs. A four leaf clover would be symbolic. In my mind it is symbolic because it represents something special to me. Now that we learned about vision and the eye it is interesting to think about how an icon such as a four leaf clover can represent a million different things depending on the person. I find that intriguing and I never even thought about that until this class.

Now that the semester is almost over I can analyze this symbol more elaborately. I feel the lines are very to the point and make it easy to make out the clover. It is easy to see the four different parts of the clover which I used to represent each of the members of my family. There are a few different greens in this clover. The top of the clover is the lightest and as you go down to the stem it becomes darker. I feel this shows the difference between the clover itself and the stem. It makes it more interesting to look at having different colors and not just one color green.  Other than line and colors the clover icon I chose is extremely bare. In some way this can relate back to our textbook McCloud. He believes that the more basic a face is the more people can enjoy and relate to it. I feel this way towards my icon being the clover. Since the clover is so plain I could see myself, and my family, and how it relates to my life in so many ways. This would have been much more difficult if the clover was more in-depth and elaborate. This icon represents me in many ways as discussed above. I am now able to analyze this image in a new way. This is something I never would have been able to do before this class.