A few years ago, I decided that, as an artist, the only subject matter that I could truly express and feel comfortable doing so was myself. I was (and still am) young enough to realize that I was seriously lacking in lofty world-views and cultural opinions; I felt at the time that any social message that I attempted to express or explore through my work would end up being too transparent or half-formed, and the piece would suffer. So, instead of looking out at the world for inspiration, I looked inward.
Self-portraiture pleases me for several reasons:
I. Documentation of fleeting personal changes and brief moments (as pictured above)
II. Expression of secret thoughts, desires and opinions
III. Exploration and the search for a personal place in the world
It's just the same in the general process of living; all that I have to offer is myself. I can't be any more or less than who I am; I must act in accordance with what makes me feel whole and calm and good. I want to be exuberant and giving and electric; I want to create and capture those feelings in my work.
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I like to think that all work is self-portraiture; the artist's experiences, beliefs and choices influence their work so that it becomes a reflection of their person, regardless of the work's subject matter.
I began to think about this in my second year of Fine Arts at UW, when my class was assigned the challenge of presenting Drawing as both a verb and a noun. My group and I devised a project in which our classmates were given inkblots and then asked to draw what they saw in the images; as predicted, each participant created a different piece in response to identical inspirations. This supported our hypothesis that each person's life experiences would shape their perceptions and influenced their output. Simple.
Every girl I draw is me; every word I write is a reflection of my own mind.
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