I have always been interested in making work about the passage of time and these images, I believe, continue that exploration, with most of the captures having been taken in sequence, in 9 parts, 3 rows of 3, forcing the viewer to scan the face at a slower pace than one might ordinarily take in a portrait. There is also a layering of other things – ephemera, a cabinet, floral wallpaper, a samurai woodblock, to name a few – that consequently slow down further the viewer’s ability to see the whole, hence making the viewer aware that one is seeing over and through time.
The self-portrait was also something that consumed me as a painter - an always ready and willing sitter. Jason Farago said, in his essay on Durer’s 1500 self-portrait, made when he was 28, which appeared in the NYTimes last September, about that particular self-portrait, and, hence the endeavor of self-portraiture in general that would follow, that his painting was a depiction of:
“the self as a subjective individual, the author of one’s own life story. And a modern conception, too, of what it means to be an artist.”
This resonates deeply with what I have created with this series, and what is presented here. These images are, in fact, the anti-selfie, that snapshot that drowns social media. They are deliberate, staged images of the artist. These self portraits are slow/bold, considered/vibrant, multi-layered creations.
