Self Portrait

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on September 15, 2013 at 10:14pm

Curator’s Comment:

 

These new self-portraits appear acutely seated in psychological tension; the blurring movement in the subject becomes a state of emotional flux beyond the physical passage of time or transition of space.  Visually, the recognizable features of the head nicely ground the subject as a fixed point for the trailing lines of color.  I especially like the cooler needle like hatched pattern of the light background space, as the prickly lines appear to form abraded surfaces on the warm fleshy tones of the face.  The pale blue fractured shape across the right side of the portrait formally halts the vertigo shift and anchors the traveling lines again at the back of the head.  It is either the place they to which they flow, or originate. The second self-portrait contains a stronger emphasis on the face/head rather than surrounding expanse, and signals a state of confusion or disorientation.  It may be from the looping lines of the glasses. But the downward looking gesture also is less confident than the former ‘self’, and resigned to ambiguity.