Interview with artist Sequoyah Aono, Third Prize, Portrait Competition 2013 for his self portrait. Sequoyah Aono writes: "From time to time I think about the reason of my existence, / who I am, what I can do, how I am needed . . . / Whenever I think of this, I feel unstable and unsteady./ At such times I feel like carving myself. / I have been carving self-portraits one by one mindlessly for confirming my existence, as if some response / would come out after completion. / At times of losing myself in this life, / I just feel so sure of standing on my own feet / when working on self-portraits." The Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition is a juried exhibition of portraits at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. The exhibition includes 48 works created from both traditional media like oil paintings, drawings and photographs as well as more surprising materials such as rice, glitter, thread and video. The museum received over 3,000 entries in a variety of visual arts media. The competition and exhibition are made possible by the vision and generosity of Virginia Outwin Boochever. Jennifer Levonian was interviewed on March 22. 2013 at NPG. "Buffalo Milk Yogurt" by Jennifer Levonian / Digital video/animation (6:46 minutes), 2010 / Collection of the artist. Music: "Budding" by Broke for Free: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Broke_For_Free/Gold_Can_Stay/Broke_For_Free_-_Gold_Can_Stay_-_01_Budding https://soundcloud.com/broke-for-free . Used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) License.