KATEVANI DUMBADZE

Final Project
When I was brainstorming ideas of how I could represent myself using a 3D model; my mind went to representing myself through my interests, personality or skills. However when the idea of using my heritage as a representation of myself was presented I thought I could really display my unique culture and show how that was a big part of my identity. I was born and raised in Georgia and moved to the United States when I was four years old. After the move I still went back to Georgian during the summer to visit my friends and family and I loved reconnecting with my roots. And even when I came back to New York my parents wanted me to be around Georgian culture which included Georgian food, music, and making sure to spoke Geogrian at home. My culture and beliefs have been a big part of my life so I thought my heritage would be a great way of representing myself.

When I started to think about how to incorporate Georgian culture in my 3D model my first thought was to make a statue of a woman. This idea was inspired by an existing statue called "Kartlis Deda'' which translates to Mother of Georgia. And I wanted to dress my statue in traditional Georian clothing. So I incorporated a headdress and a chest piece and these were part of the attire women wore when dancing traditional georgian dances. On the front I included a cut out of Georgia and inside there would be a grid system where each grid was a photograph from my childhood in Georgia. This would be positioned over the heart to symbolize that all those memories will always have a place in my heart and no matter where I go Georgia will still be a part of me. I wanted to also incorporate my beliefs and add things that represented my religion as well. So on the back I would use my architecture skills to craft an Orthodox

Christian church surrounded by the beautiful nature and mountains that Georgia is famous for. I am so proud of where I come from and these things have all shaped me into the person I am today and will continue to be a great part of my life. Making the 3D representation of my culture was very important to me and I am proud of how I executed the creation of the statue.