Portrait of the Artist
My sister-in-law, who happens to be a fabulously talented painter, is working on a very interesting project…or, rather, has her friends and family working on it. She’s taken several 8″ x 10″ canvases, and had family and friends paint self-portraits. The intent is to hang them all together on a large stretch of wall in her living room. Last night, Ed and I had our turns.
Painting is not something I do well, nor is drawing. I have difficulty getting the lines to go where I want them; I realize that this is simply a matter of practice, but I haven’t taken the time. Perhaps someday. I was tempted to go all Picasso, but realized that it probably wouldn’t look intentional. Dali-esque, however appropriate, simply wasn’t going to happen. Noses are difficult for me, as are ears. And as much as I wanted to go along with Lori’s project and help her out, I didn’t want to botch the job, either. I’d actually been agonzing over it for some time.
Fortunately, I found a way to make us both happy. I’m taking advantage of the fact that when someone hangs a decorative mirror at eye level, I usually see myself only from the eyes up, with my head tilted back. (Side effect of being under five feet tall.) So, my painting starts at about the middle of my nose, and shows only the eyes, forehead, top of my head and hair. I put a lot of time into painting my hair; I simply couldn’t stop fussing with it. Life really does imitate art.
We were told not to sign our paintings, but as I am by far the shortest adult in the family–my ten-year-old-niece is almost as tall as I am–it’s easy to guess which one is me. That, and because I wasn’t told ahead of time not to sign it, and painted the Japanese character for “light” in the upper right corner. (”Liorah” means “I have light” in Hebrew.)
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May 31st, 2005 at 9:12 am
I have to agree with the passing statement you made, that “x” takes practice. I sometimes wonder whether this is not the Great Secret of the Universe, in fact!