Rocktober

"The rock star is dying. And it's a small tragedy. 

Rock stars have blogs now. 

I have no use for that kind of rock star."

-- Nick Cave

Self portrait 10-21-13

 Fun with stick-on facial hair!

Channeling my inner Nikki Sixx.

Lipschtick

"I'm the bearded lady! Who are you, one of the freaks?"

-- Spaceballs

Arranged face with beard, mustache, cutout lips and a cigarette 9-6-13

"People talk about my image, like I come in two dimensions, 

like lipstick is a sign of my declining mind ..."

-- Ani DiFranco

Arranged face (2) with beard, mustache, cutout lips and a cigarette 9-6-13

"I smoke so many cigarettes, 

there's no way I could have glossy lipstick."

-- Isabella Blow

"I have a beard of fog that I wear on misty mornings.

It's not cigarette smoke, but I'd understand if you wanted to

shave it off and inhale it."

-- Jarod Kintz,

At even one penny, this book would be overpriced

Putting it together

"Arrange your face."

-- Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall 

Self portrait 7-29-13

 "He has been disassembled by her.

And if she has brought him to this,

what has he brought her to?"

-- Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient

Self portrait (2) 7-29-13

"It's all in how you arrange the thing ...

the careful balance of the design

is the motion."

-- Andrew Wyeth

Self portrait (3) 7-29-13

"Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade

just as painting does, or music.

If you are born knowing them, fine.

If not, learn them.

Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself."

--Truman Capote

Self portrait (4) 7-29-13

“Bit by bit, putting it together...
Piece by piece, only way to make a work of art.
Every moment makes a contribution,
Every little detail plays a part.
Having just the vision's no solution,
Everything depends on execution,
Putting it together, that's what counts.”

-- Stephen Sondheim, Sunday in the Park With George

 

A one-way ticket on the Self Express

"There is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. 

And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost."

-- Martha Graham

 

Self portrait 7-3-13

“Be yourself -- not your idea of what you think somebody else's idea of yourself should be.”

-- Henry David Thoreau

“There are only two styles of portrait painting: 

the serious and the smirk."

-- Charles Dickens

Pin up girl

“This thief was an artist of theft. 

Other thieves merely stole everything that was not nailed down, 

but this thief stole the nails as well.”

                     

                                                                                                -- Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

"Pin up girl" collage 5-3-13

When I was born, they looked at me and said
what a good boy, what a smart boy, what a strong boy.
And when you were born, they looked at you and said,
what a good girl, what a smart girl, what a pretty girl.

We've got these chains that hang around our necks,
people want to strangle us with them before we take our first breath.
Afraid of change, afraid of staying the same,
when temptation calls, we just look away.

 -- Barenaked Ladies, "What a Good Boy"

Mix-n-match

"My insides don't match up with my outsides."

"Do anyone's insides and outsides match up?"

"I don't know. I'm only me."

 -- Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Self portrait 4-28-13

“I was not ladylike, nor was I manly. 

I was something else altogether. 

There were so many different ways to be beautiful.”

-- Michael Cunningham, A Home at the End of the World 

Dis-guys

One of my fellas.
Okay, it's me.
With a beard.

Self portrait 2-9-13

Self portrait 2-9-13

One of the boys

Tapping my inner cool dude.
Wait, what? Everybody doesn't have a latex rubber crewcut wig?
That's a real shame.
Cuz everybody should.

Self portrait 2-1-13

Is he or isn't she?

Androgyny.

It's the murky middle ground between masculinity and femininity -- not completely one or the other, and with strong flavors of both. I am no psychologist, but I do believe that most of us, whether our birth certificate says female or male, have a lot more of the "other" mixed into our personal gender cocktail than we care to admit. Personally, I believe the fullness of my personality is a mashup of a vast multiplicity of selves: hims, hers, boys, girls, chicks, dudes. Practicing self portrait has helped me capture images of the separate, distinctly male and female personas that are so intricately mingled inside my self. They emerge on their own terms and timetables, and I never know for sure when one of them might show up. Some are repeat customers. Some come out only once and I never see them again. Looking back over my hundreds of self portraits is a lot like looking into a family album in a way.

I got mistaken for a boy a lot when I was a growing up. I pretended that it bothered me, but honestly, I secretly liked it and wished people would quit making such a big deal about it. Self portraits like this one help me imagine how I might look had I been born male, or had a twin brother. It is remarkable how simple it is to nudge the dial from "girl" to "boy." False eyelashes are all it takes. Put them on the eyelids and wham! It's a girl. Stick one under the lower lip and you get this guy.

Self portrait 1-19-13