Reinventing Self

"Self-Portrait, 2019" - acrylic on mat board.  NFS

There are circumstances in life which force us to reinvent ourselves - to live within limitations, to reach outside of our comfort zones or to drop everything we know in a trust-fall of epic proportions.  But we also have the choice to re-imagine our existence at any moment. 

Artists create new worlds each time they begin a piece of work.  It is a heady responsibility.   This is magnified when it's a self-portrait.

Artist Caroline C. Brown got me started on the annual selfie way back in the beginning of (my) art.  There is nothing more horrifying, and yet more liberating, than painting yourself.  It is an exercise in objectivity and distance which, somehow, in the end, brings us closer to and more accepting of ourselves.  How is that possible?

Self-Portrait, 2019

Notan

For this piece, I began with a photo run through the Notanizer app.   ​ Removing color, isolating values and big shapes already puts me at an objective distance from my own creased forehead and silvery strands.

An old piece of uncut mat board was the perfect substrate.  It grabbed the paint and handled water without too much buckling.  Using a paint pen, I roughed in the shapes, then began painting with black gesso.  While the gesso was wet, I came in with white gesso to make some gray tones to set up the values for the piece.  Pulling further away from realism, I chose a pop color palette and a stencil to add a little texture.

About halfway through the piece, I put away the Notan and worked with what was on the mat board.  The expression changed a bit, as did a few of the shapes, but the end result is still me, reinvented

As I stand in front of my mirror this morning, make-up in hand, you know I am tempted to recreate this look on my actual face, right?