Self Portraits

Hello folks! and yes, that's me....a self portrait of how I imagine myself to look during meditation.

I'm a big believer that everyone at various times in their life, artist or not, should do a self portrait. When I was in kindergarten our class had to do a self portrait. I still remember the little plaid dress I was wearing with white knee socks which I creatively captured in my drawing. I drew a big smile on my face, and freckles of course (I was observant).

My mother was so proud of that portrait that she framed it and gave it to me to hang in my room. I still have it as a beautiful reminder of the innocence, the adoring childhood, the simplicity and the excitement for living that my first 5 yrs represented. Much better than a page from a diary! Don't you think?!

I did another self portrait when I was 11, this time it was during an art class that my mother was teaching and I was one of her misbehaving-trying-to-be-funny-but-disrupting-her-class students. On this particular day she had a mirror for each child and we were to do a pencil drawing of the face we saw in the mirror. We all produced such magnificent drawings of ourselves! It was a magical experience that I never forgot. We all left with a sense of the essence or spirit of ourselves which was the goal of this lesson.

Fast forward to now. I still enjoy self portraits, but rather than the mundane, I instead like to project a more fanciful side of myself. In my "Moon Series" my alter-ego engages in rides on a magic carpet (see above), climbs to the top of a mountain to stretch my hand out to grasp a full moon, and picks apples only instead of apples it's a tree full of ripe "moons".

So, today, it is my wish that everyone who reads my blog (hi Carmel) will do some kind of self portrait of themselves. Get out a Bic pen if you have to, grab a mirror and go at it. Draw your essence, your spirit, your humor, your loveliness. Then frame it and hang it where you will see it often, and where others will see it as well. Use it as a conversation piece and pass it along: "Everyone should do a self portrait."