Sometimes, it’s hard to define the exact line between an outpouring of creative electricity and that numbing, somewhat blinding charge of having gone too far. Passion or Obsession?
Recently, this is what too much artistic focus has shown me – particularly given that the subject of this artwork has been self-portraits. This study into self-portraiture is not new for me, as I have been creating work focused around it for a few years now. So, in a sense, you could say that this is a self-obsessive condition right there, a narcissistic lair that I keep venturing to whenever I see my face in the mirror. . .but it’s more than that.
What most interests me through creating works like this is subjective interpretations on existence and experience: individual and personal perspectives. This involves questioning my own existence most of the time, through different lenses of thought and what it means to be an artist in this time. And self-portraits show this special, unique truth in their creation that I think is of integral benefit to both the creator and the receiver.
This significance is universal when you think about how the first images were formed; they were more often carved and inscribed as outlines of figures into rocks or flat stone, and the painted figures also followed suit in expressive gestures, allowing a focus on suggestive lines rather than explicit details. Lines are also what I have been exploring with my most recent self-portraits – a study involving how pen lines and etching techniques form a synthesis in the act of mark-making onto a surface.
To give a context for what I have been stressing over, the studies that I produced involved over 40 self-portraits that were created looking into a mirror. These all united the concepts described above: questioning existence, looking at the artistic obsession/passion through practice and a big focus on line making. What has intrigued me most is that each and every portrait has resulted in entirely different constructs, while still using the same principles across the board.
To give an idea of how successful this experimentation was, I’ve included a few images below.
Please note: this is my first ever blog post and I hope to venture into many more areas and also follow up with the result of this particular project.
I hope you enjoy the blog! And please leave any comments/questions below if you have them 😀
His Empty Space 