Mirror, mirror on the wall

Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.” Oscar Wilde

Self with my trees, charcoal, 2015

  Facing a blank sheet of paper or canvas is tough enough, but add my face in a mirror staring back at me and I am battling reality and my assumptions at the same time, too. Self portraits are still a compelling idea for me. Sporadic and unexpected, I decide to look myself in the eye and paint what I see, or what I think I see. Let's face it, I am still the cheapest model I know.

  "Self with My Trees" is very recent and I think I look a bit like Dora the Explorer here. I like the idea of taking the trees outside the studio window and blending them into my portrait so that they come around me and are part of me, not a background.

  The self portrait is a vehicle for a whole assortment of ideas about identity, or a simple attempt to see a true snapshot of oneself at one moment in time. They can be fun, ironic, insightful, fake, false, mystical, spiritual, and more. No wonder they have been around for as long as makers have picked up a brush or chisel, or camera.


  Self-portraits today are consumed by general audiences often with the cult of the artist in mind—that they are a window into a true genius or tormented soul, à laMunch or Van Gogh, as well as promotional.

  You can't beat a self portrait from Rembrandt or Kahlo or Van Gogh, to name a few. I go back to look at those artists to see how fearless, sensitive, and inventive a self portrait can be.

  For a look into the history of the self portrait, try this recent book:
The Self-Portrait: A Cultural History by James Hall, published by Thames & Hudson

 P. S. Are selfies real self portraits? Sometimes. Narcissism in some form was often there from the beginning, but today's selfies often take it to a self loving' extreme.