When I started drawing as a teenager, I had stacks of pretty fashion magazines that I used for reference. If you’re a child of the 80s or 90s you’ll remember that none of those photographs had anything to do with actual human looks or features. I soon switched to using more accurate photos; documentary style like the Time Life collection, but also our family photos.
That turned out to be a whole lot more challenging! Creating a recognisable portrait – which is different from an accurate or realistic one – remains one of the most intriguing processes to go through. In particular, when you work in a way that starts out with shapes and blobs and whatnot and you define your face as you go, there comes this moment when it clicks, when you step back and say ‘hey, you’re here finally’.
Or not of course, and then you rip the whole thing up and start over haha!
I did a lot of self-portraits and used a lot of mirrors. It’s difficult to train the mind that we’re now using this thing as a means for art, not re-applying your make-up or the next round of brutal judgement. Some find that easier than others but there is still something strangely special about being both the artist and the model.
The mirror as the object that we know it to be, is not the only mirror in art. Carefully looking at the faces of other people acted as a filter between my hard look and my mirror image. It’s very different than an airbrushed version of a human staring back at you from the satin-finish pages of a magazine. I started seeing things as they are, instead of how they were supposed to be in my mind. My one eye rounder than the other. Your nose slightly bent to one side. My skin one color, yours another. Painting other people became almost a mirror game like we used to play as kids, pointing out our unique features. And in that process, it felt like the pressure cooker was released.
I believe art is the mirror you need it to be, no matter what you create. Portraits, landscapes, abstract, anything. I hope you will join me again this month during our livestream and Zoom gatherings to explore this. <3
Details of last month’s work themed “Light”
This month’s schedule, livestream and Zoom links
Here’s this month schedule with the links to all the livestreams and my Zoom room below. If you’d like last minute reminders when these start, make sure to join my Instagram channel. I always post there half an hour before we start.
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