Mirror Events

The classic painted self-portrait depends in the mirror. People are ready to accept that a self-portrait painted from the image in the mirror is "from life" and somehow more legitimate than painting oneself from an image in a photograph. But is the mirror image and more or less "real" than the photographic one? I cannot separate the image I have of myself from either.

I began calling my painted self-portraits "Mirror Events" to acknowledge that the mirror is an equal agent in the production of the self-image. Extending the idea, I photographed myself in the mirror to better stabilize the image and also record the added agency of the camera in the process of self-representation.

[[add flash mirror]]

Second Hand Self Portraits

From there, I researched and discovered a number of other photographic self-portraits that also emphasized the camera's role in constructing the identity of the artist. I decided to paint from some of these photographs in a series of "Second Hand Self Portraits". I found a few that also used the mirror and camera together. I made paintings from some of my favorite photographic self-portraits of famous artists and photographers.

 

[[add cmk and other pastel]]
Here is a study in pastel of a portrait of Picasso taken by Georges Braque, but staged by Picasso who donned Braque's oversize army coat and cap and struck a pose. He kept the photograph, and others in the same series, for his own reference.