#363: Eras (Self-portrait XXII)

A list of the eras that have made up your life and the scenes, music, books, clothes, toys, colours, places, TV, films or anything or anyone else that could represent or define each one.

#325: Déjà vu

Imagining something you have imagined before but had forgotten until now.

Or

An artwork resembling one you have imagined before.

For example:

#326: Desk (Self-portrait II XXI)

If your desk, or workspace, was an artwork, what would it say about you?

(I cleared and tidied mine in preparation)

#258: You should see my armoury (Self-portrait XX)

Oil on canvas.  A sort-of still life in the style of the Dutch Golden Age showing all the skills you possess.

#243: Self-portrait with TV and living room (Self-portrait XIX)

A portrait of you in your living room with the TV (if you have one) on.  

What is playing on the TV?  

What else is in the room?  

How much of you is in the room?  

How does each item in the portrait represent you?

#218: Self-portrait XVIII / Joint Self-portrait V

A film of you in a karaoke booth singing the songs that you feel most represent you and your life.  Or with your friends and/or family singing the songs that unite you and represent you as a group.

#211: Immerse your soul in love (Self-portrait XVII)

Your face when feeling love.

#171: Losing It and Loving It (Self-portrait XVI)

You: 

lost in something you enjoy: 

in the state where you are losing your shit and loving it: 

where you just don’t care how you look: 

you are not even thinking about it: 

(zero fucks):

you are just in that moment: 

doing whatever in wherever.

(For example, while singing it loud at the indie disco).

#170: Divine Youth? (Self-portrait XV)

The self-portrait in your own mind of how you imagine yourself to be.  That is, the version that lives inside your current self and that is the image you see in your mind’s eye before looking in the mirror - possibly causing you to get a bit of a surprise when you see the real you - especially if, like Nicky Wire, you are seeing a sort-of idealised younger version of yourself and your inner self does not match-up with your outer self: 

“Divine youth is lying in

A battered and a bruised skin

I wear but don't recognise.”

#169: Put yourself in Munch's place (Self-portrait XIV)

Take a look at Edvard Munch’s Self-Portrait. Between the Clock and the Bed.  

Behind him is a room full of light, showing his life and work.  Beside him stands a reminder of passing, counting down his time left on earth, to one side, and, to the other, his deathbed.  Each waiting to take him away.  

Put yourself in Munch’s place. 

What would you be leaving behind at The End?  

What would be in the room behind to represent your life?

And how would you look when facing the inevitable? 

What would be going through your head?

:

What would your Self-Portrait look like?

#146: Windows (Self-portrait XIII)

A medium of your choice.

An artwork based on the colours and patterns in your eyes.

#140: Emotional Reflection (Self-portrait XII)

A mirror.

In it you see not your outer layer but the cloud of emotions within.

What does it look like?

#134: Self-portrait XI

Remember yourself in a time when you did not look like everybody else.

#102: Feedback (Self-portrait X)

A mirror.

Wait for the feedback.

---

After Creature Comfort by Arcade Fire.

#099: Melancholy (after Munch and Los Campesinos!) [Self-portrait IX]

Oil on canvas.  You, sitting by the sea and looking out across it after something has happened and you are seeking the space to think about it, but also to start to find a way forward while life carries on around you.

#083: Self-portrait VIII / Joint self-portrait IV

Cover a wall large enough for the task with corkboard and place on this maps of every country you have lived in or visited.  In these place a pin or other marker in every town you have been to.  Depending on space and detail you want, you could use regional maps for some, or all, countries.  If you have less space, you could try this with a world map and mark each country and major city.

You could form a joint-self-portrait with others by placing different colour markers for each person.  

#059: Self-portrait VII

An image of you, your face fixed in a way that is different from how you are feeling within.

#031: Self-portrait VI: Doorways

The doorways of your life positioned around an exhibition with short explanations as to their importance.  

They could be your bedroom door(s) growing up, dorm or hotel or caravan doors from holidays, doors to particular rooms at school, cabin doors, car doors, front doors, back doors, side doors, garage doors, shed doors, attic doors, hatches, trap doors...  

Anything of significance to you.

#029: Self-portrait IV

An old diary, calendar or other record of what you did for a period of time.

#027: Self-portrait III / Joint self-portrait III

Make lists of your favourite things: books, songs, albums, films, food, places, artworks...

Later on you could combine with others, finding similarities and differences to form joint self-portraits.  Venn diagrams, perhaps, showing where you meet, overlap and lie together.  And where you are poles apart.  Or opposites, in a way, circles completely separate but still interacting.

#024: Self-portrait II / Joint self-portrait II

Your space.  Your garden, your room, your desk at work, a drawer, a cupboard, a shed - any space that is yours.

"You" could be yourself only, a couple, or a group.