38 Windows the Shape of Eyes by Ashley Espinosa, is a stop motion animation that portrays the hardships, priorities, and dreams of three generations of women within the same family. The video includes three portraits of women, each populated by symbols of the time period in which the women grew up. Animated props in the background of each scene bring life to the decade each woman was a part of, relating them each to their respective generation. Although the generational portraits are a crucial part of the video, Espinosa focuses our attention on the small figure of a girl, seen throughout the entire animation. As the figure moves around, she collects symbolic items from each of the women’s portraits. The items have different colors: red representing struggles and traumas, green representing priorities, and purple representing dreams and aspirations. Espinosa conveys the many aspects that make up a person’s life getting passed down generation to generation as well as getting left behind.

In each portrait, Espinosa drew eyes as windows to the soul. 38 Windows the Shape of Eyes shows what each individual had to deal with, while also depicting who each is as a person and how their experiences might have influenced the youngest generation—the artist’s own. The title refers to the thirty-eight years that separate the births of the artist, the artist’s mother, and the artist’s grandmother.