self portraits |

The Muses back in Sebastopol met this week to work on self portraits together. Not wanting to miss out I braved the chaos of my garage studio and decided to take the easy way out, using an old lesson I taught many times.

Take a picture of yourself using the Comic Strip filter on the Photo Booth app (if you have it on your computer) and print it out in Black and White. Then carve it up, glue it onto the paper and have your paint/gesso/collage way with it. Add words.

Just give me a space to paint and

I’ll find a way

SOMEWHERE

Between ceiling hooks and oil stained floor

There’s a place to thrive

In a maze of U-haul boxes

Partly opened and fully unorganized

SOMEWHERE there’s a place to paint

To cut and paste and draw and write

Because I’m hardcore. . .

Just help me find those scissors I left. . .

SOMEWHERE. . .

Confusion is often the name of the game these days, but one thing is certain. It will be many more months before life settles again into some predictable rhythm, (and the ability to find the good scissors when you need them!) So I just bought myself a new pair. The girl in the picture is OK, even though the snakes on the head sometimes get a bit out of hand!

This is why it’s good to do a self portrait at regular intervals in order to check in on yourself, or to look back at earlier ones to see if things might have changed. Here’s one from May this year when the Sh”!t was really hitting the fan prior to moving!

The look on her face before leaping the chasm. . .

Some of you probably think that we do serious art in the mixed media painting group I lead. And you’re right! We just finished up an 8-week series of lessons where we explored window imagery, coffee and tea stained designs, sgraffito and zany self portraits!

The portraits were perhaps the most un-serious of our works. You decide for yourself. Here are the Musers’ own self portrait musings. Have you ever seen so much glamour in one place, short of the Academy Awards!?

studentselfieRuth

self portrait by Ruth

studentselfiePatricia self portrait by Patricia

studentselfiePat self portrait by Pat

studentselfieNancy

self portrait(s) by Nancy

studentselfieMuriel2

self portrait by Muriel

studentselfieDenise

self portrait by Denise

selfiebrigitte

self portrait by Brigette

As you can tell, the teacher did not give any specific instructions here. We did however take advantage of the Comic Strip filter in the PhotoBooth program in my computer to pose, print out and use our images as a starting point for serious (ahem) self searching contemplations. In case you missed it, I posted my own selfie a few weeks ago here. I like to think each new self portrait should reveal a different one of our many secret selves.

As the Muse Group proceeds I like to hang my demos on the wall before putting them in portfolio books with the writings. The wall is full right now. Time to switch up and make room for this current session.

wallofMusework

This is a good time to try out the Muse Group if you’re interested. There’s space this time around to try it out on a drop in basis or to return, see your Muse friends and get a renewal of that creative energy. For more info, times and dates, visit my website.