Stella Chin always seems peaceful and collected. Her smile is ever-present, her laugh a constant. So it only make sense that her smile be the main point of her self-portrait. But Stella used her smile in a way that is different from what I am used to seeing. In Stella’s performance, she holds up a smile to her mouth. By doing this, Stella shows the audience a vital piece of who she is – her happiness. But that is not all. She then moves the smile to cover the rest of her face, which I interpreted to mean that she was using a smile to hide. She must have been nervous standing up there in front of a classroom full of peers and a professor, as we all were. Stella used her smile to hide her discomfort. This may be a reflection of her actions in general, though it may also be for this single event. The self-portrait was short and simple, taking up a minimal amount of space, only the area where she was standing. This minimalism allowed for her message to be clear. But her self-portrait was not just her performance. Her laughter at the end is a sigh of relief, a shine of energy. This laughter affirms the performance that Stella gave. She may get scared, but she’ll always have an inner happiness.