Acrylic on red paper. 29×39 cm .
J’ai décidé de peindre un portrait de moi une fois par an. Comme une nature morte humaine.
I decided to paint a portrait of myself once every year. Like a human still life. The French, refer to it as a “nature morte”, something that is in decay. How will I look like in a year ? In ten years ?
Thank you very much for your comments Claudia, there are always appreciated. I visited the Modern Tate several years ago, one room had a fast forward video of a fruit bowl. Since Time was fast forwarded, I could witness the fruit rapidly decaying and almost dissapearing in some kind of moldy dust, in just a couple of seconds. It really impressed me. I am not sure if the work is still on display, but if I ever visit the museum again, I will certainly look for it.
I think that’s a great idea. I just saw the Elaine de Kooning exhibition “Portraits” at the Smithsonian National Museum of Art and was blown away. I thought too, that I should do a portrait every now and then of not only me, but my partner in life.
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Exactly ! When I started painting myself, I realised that it was more than just piling up a group of colors on a surface in a way that it would look like me. There was the way I felt like at the moment, the thoughts I carried that I believe are surely behind the strokes of my brush. I think a self portrait is like taking a picture of your mind at a certain time of your life. It becomes your own personal heirloom.
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I like how you’ve set it against the background. Does the background have any special meaning to you?
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JulieHarms. 
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