Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Self Portraits (a revisiting)

In the post above this one, I went into some length about how vexed I become concerning the misinterpretation of self-portraits. One of the issues I mentioned being frustrated with, narcissism, stems from the fact that I am very touchy about being labeled self-centered. This deeply upsets me because it may be a wee bit true, and I put a good deal of focus into keeping it from being so... after all I can't help that I am kinda awesome now can I? The point is, that my awesomeness is not the reason I use myself in my work. I shall go into a few brief examples...

"Self" this 24"x 18" panel is painted with nose bleed blood. Yes, you read that correctly... it was early in 2005, cold outside (heater induced nose bleeds) and I was in a rather dark place in my human development. I was rebelling against a gentleman whom I had deeply respected, who, having just dumped me, his judgement was in great question. One of the opinions in question was that all female artists who painted themselves nude were just looking for easy slutty attention. Several other topless pieces were to follow. bottom-line, what else would you paint with your own blood?

"Upon the Penultimate" this roughly 30"x 24" collage piece is as literal a snapshot as I could creating of my return from Eastern Europe. The emotions psychically felt like my neck opening up into a great Elizabethan collar. I rode the moving sidewalks all over the Chicago Airport waiting for my flight. I could never use someone else to express such a personal experience.

"Another Anticipation of Toads" 18"x 24" This is the second of two pieces dealing with the fiary tale idea that the good daughter is rewarded with diamonds and rubies and pearls falling out of her mouth every time she speaks, and the bad daughter having toads etcetera fall out of her mouth. I am totally into the weirdness of this tale, both times I have planned to have toads falling from the mouth and both times it didn't seem to need to be happening once the pieces were designed. In this case I knew exactly what pose I wanted and what shirt and what bathtub to use. I was easy to use, and that was why I was it. sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

2 comments:

ravi said...

Upon the Penultimate - i knew there was something about this piece that reminded me of something familiar. o'hare airport reminds me of a childhood trip to india. and those neon lights are cool.

also, i enjoy reading your blog. it's great to read that you're doing great work.

Justin said...

"Self" is exquisite, both in concept and execution.