Blurring Boundaries: Mapping Identity with Place through Autoethnography, Mapping, and Arts-Based Research

Abstract

Liminal space serves as a metaphor in defining the in-between places I feel as an artist/teacher and the in-between places I live in because of the intermixing of images from memory and daily life. As an artist embarking on a career as an educator, I have difficulty visually portraying my identity in my art and feel my future students will find it difficult to define who they are without proper guidance and knowledge of what could define a person. I will be a teacher who will not propose a concept or lesson to students without undertaking the project myself. Identity evolves and incorporates elements of where we live and what we see every day. The liminal, in-between, blurry, and distorted perceptions that define my identity are expressed through arts-based research, autoethnography, and mapping. In this research I create and connect paths that lead to a further definition of the artist/teacher.