19/100 putting it all together

As I have been working on these I have been hanging them up on a wall in my house but as I just finished my 25th portrait I am quickly running out of wall space. I wanted one place where all the portraits, info and inspiration can be seen so I have been slowly adding it all to my website. If I have already finished your portrait I sent you an email last night letting you know what number you are and a copy or your portrait. I still have a few more self evaluations that people shared that I am working on and then hoping to do even more. There is a link on the website to take the self evaluation so if you want to participate in this project or know someone else who might be interested please share Katiegillharvey.com

#100daysofefportraits #efportraits

18/100 let’s talk about it

My biggest hope for this project (outside of my own processing) is to get a few more people talking and thinking about the different ways peoples brains work. There is a lot of stigma around neurodiversity that I think makes it hard for lots of people to talk about it. There are also so many awesome things that neurodiverse brains can do. I hope the more we talk about it the more people will see that. Portraits 13-18 #100daysofefportraits #efportraits

17/100 Maybe this is why parents, teachers and caregivers are so tired?

when you are a parent or teacher working with kids who are developing or struggling with their EF skills, you are “lending them your frontal lobe.” When I read this it really struck me. No wonder so many parents, teachers and caregivers are so tired. You are relying on your brain to not only do the Executive Function work for you but for many other people as well. When it comes to the “invisible workload of mothers” I wonder if this is another way of seeing that idea. As a mom I often feel like I am the Executive Function for a whole family of people and that can be really tiring, lending to that feeling of the never ending workload. If you are the caregiver of an older parent or the teacher of lots of kids, or many of these things at once your brain is constantly processing for someone else. That is a lot and I wonder how much that effects someone’s portrait?

#100daysofefportraits #efportraits

16/100 No Two Are The Same

1-24

#100daysofefportraits #efportraits

15/100 inspiration

In my early drafts of this project I was using circles to represent each of the EF skills but I was struggling with placement on the paper. Feeling frustrated I stopped and took my oldest daughter and her friend to see the Sunday 10am showing of Alfred Hitchcocks original Psycho on the big screen. I have seen this movie many times in my life, I have a deep love of all Alfred Hitchcock movies but as soon as the opening sequence started i had a moment of clarity, lines not circles. If you have never seen the title sequence of this movie, you can find it on YouTube, it was designed by the artist Saul Bass (as many of Hitchock’s title sequences were) and it is so simple and perfect. Inspiration at the moment I was least expecting it. #100daysofefportraits #efportraits

14/100 think time

When I was a kid I used to have such anxiety each time a teacher would ask a question in school. Not because I didn’t know the answer but because they always asked, then immediately took the first kid to answer and moved on, while I was still processing and thinking about the question. When I was in college to become a teacher, a professor explained this situation as “think time” and he said everyone requires a different amount of think time and that we as teachers need to give adequate think time for all the kids in our class, not just the fast thinkers. Getting an answer is not all about speed. In fact the fast answer is often not the best answer (there is a great Malcolm Gladwell @revisionisthistory podcast about LSATs and think time) I have been thinking about this idea a lot as I work through this project both in terms of my own think time in this creative process and all the different think times of all the different brains in these portraits. #efportraits #100daysofefportraits

13/100 changes

When I made the google form version of the self assessment I have been using for this project I left spaces for people to add optional comments and so many people have. I have actually been finding these comments so fascinating and helpful. I have been struck that most comments fall into two categories 1. An observation about knowing weaknesses but being surprised by strengths and 2. Thoughts about changes to their Executive Function Skills. Some have noted how much their EF skills have changed since they were younger. Others have commented on how they feel like their skills are different in different parts of their lives like their job vs their personal life or different during the pandemic. I keep thinking about this as I make these, that these maps are really just a snapshot of these people at one moment in time.

Pictured here 7-12 I am still looking for volunteers so if you want to do a self assessment just email me gillharveyk@gmail.com or dm me your email address.

#100daysofefportraits #efportraits

10/100 Why do I care so much about Executive Functions?

As a teacher and parent, I feel like I first started to hear this term a few years ago. Recently, I have been hearing it more and more but it wasn't until last year that I really started to try and understand fully what Executive Functions meant. I started by listening to a podcast (because that’s really how I learn anything) called @fullprefrontal and was immediately floored. The show focused a lot on kids who struggle with Executive Function and each week a different learning specialist, neurologist, scientist, psychologist comes on and talks about Executive Functions from their perspective. It felt like they were talking directly about so many people I know and love. It changed the way I started to see these people and think about them. In retrospect it was the first seed of this project.

Through my listening, I learned that a lot of Executive Function conversation revolves around kids, because they are still developing Executive Function skills. Executive Function skills are not something we are born with but something that we develop over the course of our life, skills building on top of each other over time, with EF skills not being fully developed until a person is around 18-25 years old. There are many variables that go into the how and when of each individual skill and it’s development in each individual person. There are also many things that can affect what is called “executive dysfunction” which can be found in both kids and adults. Executive Dysfunction can be genetic, or related to trauma, brain injury, ADHD or other learning disorders. The more I listened and learned the more questions I had, the more I needed a a visual project like this to process my thoughts. #100daysofefportraits #efportraits

9/100 formula

Since my goal for this project is to make as many executive function portraits as I can, I had to come up with a quick and easy way to accurately translate each person’s unique data from their self assessment into a collage. Kind of like a formula. I thought about painting and printmaking but neither was really working. I finally discovered the solution to my problem sitting across the table from my 6th grader working on her math homework, graph paper. I painted large sheets of graph paper using the colors I assigned to each executive function, when the paper dried I cut the paper into strips 4squares by 21 squares long. The 21 came from the highest score someone could give themselves on the self assessment. So when you look at the portraits the longer the line the stronger that executive function is for that person. #100daysofefportraits #efportraits

8/100 art supplies

#100daysofefportraits #efportraits

When I first did the executive function self assessment last year, I didn’t really learn anything I didn’t already kind of know about myself. In fact it just confirmed a lot of things I already knew particularly about my own weaknesses. but I was surprised by how helpful it was for me, especially as a teacher and parent, to just to think about myself in terms of my own strengths. I may not be the best at finishing project but I am really good at starting them, I am terrible at remembering numbers and dates but I do really well at keeping a level head in stressful situations and my flexibility helps me in lots of situations . I started to think of all these things almost as a trade off. Each of these portraits were made using the data from a real persons executive functions self assessment ( thank you to all the amazing friends who have been doing these!) Only a few weeks in and I have already learned so much from this project! I have found so many people have commented something along the same lines I did, I wasn’t surprised by my weaknesses but I was surprised by my strengths. In one of the books I read last year it talked about how we can use our strengths to support our weaknesses and that really stuck with me. Maybe we all need to start paying a little more attention to our strengths. #efportraits #100daysofefportraits

5/100 The Creative Cycle

I spent most of the fall and winter in sort of creative lull. Not making much, not feeling inspired to make much and kind of beating myself up about it. I am now reminded that these down periods are really important because these periods are where creative ideas are born. Looking back I can now see that I really spent the fall and winter in the research stage of this project, reading, listening to podcasts and thinking. It has only because of all the research that I was able to come up with an idea for this project. And because this is real life my planning often looks something like this, notes between dirty dishes and breakfast. #efportrait #100daysofefportraits

4/100 executive function portraits

This is my own executive function portrait. Mine is the first portrait in the series because it felt like if I was going to ask others to do it, I should do it first. Each color corresponds to a different executive function skill and the amount of each color is a reflection of how much of that executive function I had in my self assessment. People are so much more then just their executive functions. And still I did the portrait like this because I wanted to focus on the fact that we all have these same sets of skills in varying degrees and it is the combination that we each uniquely have that forms so much of who we are each day. Are you someone who is always late or always early? Do you start a project the moment you get it or wait till the night before? Are you overwhelmed by clutter of do you thrive in it? Do you feel calm in stressful situations or do your emotions get the better of you? All of these things are partially determined by one little section in your brain, which is truly fascinating if you think about it. #efportrait #100daysofefportraits

3/100 what are executive functions?

Executive Functions are a series of cognitive skills that allow people to plan and execute a task or goal. I have seen it referred to as “the management system of the brain” which I think is a good simple way to explain it. There seems to be some debate about exactly how many Executive Function skills there are but for the purposes of this project I will be using these 12:

1) response inhibition

2) working memory

3) emotional control

4) sustained attention

5) task initiation

6) planning/prioritization

7) organization

8) time management

9) goal directed persistence

10) flexibility

11) metacognition

12) stress tolerance

This picture is the wallpaper from when I took one of my kids for an eye exam at Warby Parker. All I could think was how many executive function skills are involved in the modified Beyoncé? #efportraits #100daysofefportraits

2/100: in this project…

First and foremost I just want to thank everyone who emailed, messaged, commented and agreed to be part of this project with me. I truly thought I might get a few people but I was so happy and grateful to have gotten so many responses. I think I sent emails to everyone who said they wanted one but if I missed you please let me know. And if you still want to do it or know someone else who wants to do it just email me gillharveyk@gmail.com. I will be working on this for at least the next 100 days so no rush. I would like to get as many people as I can to participate. My goal for this project is to make as many of these portraits as I possibly can, to share all aspects of the creative process of this project, to have lots of conversations with people, to learn somethings and to share it all along the way. #efportraits #100daysofefportraits

1/100 I am starting this years 100 day project a little early because I am sure this project will probably take me more then 100 days and because I need help from others to make this project happen. Over the last year I have done a lot of learning and thinking, about learning differences, ADHD and Executive Functions. I have especially been trying to process and understand Executive Function skills, and while I have learned so much through books, podcasts, classes and talks I know the real way for me to process is through making. So I am looking for volunteers who would be willing to take an executive function self assessment and share your answers with me so that I can make a visual representation of each persons unique skills. The assessment is a google form that I will email you and takes about 15 minutes to fill out. Both you and I will receive a copy of your answers. I will not be sharing any specific persons information but will keep numbering the works as I go. I hope to share a ton more about the project and my process in the next few months but if you are willing to take the assessment or just interested in learning more about the project send me an email gillharveyk@gmail.com or send me a dm with your email and I will send you link to the google form. Pictured here are the first three #efportraits and I hope to add many more. #100daysofefportraits