 |
| 1989, Portrait by my great old friend Bill Rainey | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
|
|
|
 |
| This is who I am, sometimes. |
Lately I have been thinking about memory. I want to remember stories from my life and tell them well. Autobiography is a conceit achieved in many ways.
The paintings I usually paint are essentially self portraits with implied narratives. They are all about my own identity--what I see and how I see it, and then, how I share my mind's eye. I have painted self portraits in the traditional sense--which actually do resemble me somewhat, and it is a difficult task for many reasons. It is so hard to face oneself, so hard to sit still and stare, so uncomfortable to examine that face you think you already know. But I force myself to complete one every couple of years. Self portraits are about the only obligatory art project which I expect each of my students to attempt. They are infinitely revealing.
When I was in art school (in the early eighties) I painted the figure in narrative settings (which, unfortunately for me, was not at all in vogue). Now I paint botanically inspired images which I sometimes place in a setting but the action of which is only implied. My paintings are about humanity mostly, but they also reveal a lot about who I am. My paintings describe me.
So now that I am older, I feel more comfortable sharing who I am, and who I was. Maybe it is time to turn back to more blatant narrative in my paintings(it still is not exactly in vogue). I'll have to start with a good story and so I am collecting memories from which to begin.
 |
| Self Portrait with Leaves, 2002 |
 |
| Self portrait in Blue, 2008 |
 |
| work in progress |
 |
| Soon to be complete... |
No comments:
Post a Comment