Patternity test

 “If we experience any failures or setbacks, 

we do not forget them because they offend our self-esteem. 

Instead we reflect on them deeply, trying to figure out what went wrong 

and discern whether there are any patterns to our mistakes.”

                                                                                              -- Robert Greene, Mastery
 

Self portrait 9-15-13

“There are only patterns, patterns on top of patterns, patterns that affect other patterns. 

Patterns hidden by patterns. Patterns within patterns.
If you watch close, history does nothing but repeat itself.
What we call chaos is just patterns we haven't recognized. 

What we call random is just patterns we can't decipher.” 

-- Chuck Palahniuk, Survivor 

“This is the time for every artist in every genre 

to do what he or she does loudly and consistently. 

It doesn't matter to me what your position is. 

You've got to keep asserting the complexity and the originality of life, 

and the multiplicity of it, and the facets of it.”

                                                                                                 -- Toni Morrison

Look me in the eye

"Every closed eye is not sleeping, 

and every open eye is not seeing."

-- Bill Cosby

Self portrait 7-12-13

Mandala me

“If her own life was that carefully described pencil line, 

she knew it all at once that the two ends were drawing close together. 

I have come full circle, she told herself, and wondered what had happened to all the years. 

It was a question, which from time to time, caused her some anxiety 

and left her fretting with a dreadful sense of waste.”

-- Rosamunde Pilcher

Self portrait 5-8-13

“I have begun to wonder where I came from. 

The person I am now, this fumbling, stumbling supplicant ... 

was I built on the foundations of my old life, 

or did I rise from the grave a blank slate? 

How much of me is inherited, 

and how much is my own creation?”

-- Isaac Marion, Warm Bodies

“Learning without reflection is a waste. Reflection without learning is dangerous.”

-- Confucius

Scarface

 “The human race tends to remember 

the abuses to which it has been subjected 

rather than the endearments. 

What's left of kisses? 

Wounds, however, leave scars.”

                                                   

                                                    -- Bertolt Brecht

Wounded (Styrofoam wig forms) 3-23-13

 “Some wounds run too deep for the healing.”

-- J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Know thyself

I like cloning myself and then playing with multiple images of me to see how they interact with each other. It is very compelling and highly addictive. Sometimes I go all elaborate with sets/costumes and alter egos. Today's image is a very simple assemblage of me times two. I'm not a super social person, and I spend a lot of time with just myselves for companionship. Self portraits of multiple me(s) are one way I doggedly try to get to know me better.

The ancient Greek saying γνῶθι σεαυτόν means "know thyself." It has a couple of interpretations, but my favorite is that it's a warning to pay no attention to the opinion of the multitude. The multitude may be of the opinion that taking pictures of myself day in and day out is a less-than valid use of my time. The judgmental multitude can think whatever it wants to. But the judgmental multitude has no idea. And the judgmental multitude may kiss my ass.

Self portrait 1-18-13

If you have the time and want to learn more about the psychology of self portraits (and other portraiture), I highly recommend an extremely thorough and insightful website called Photographic Psychology: Image and Psyche written and photographed by psychology professor John Suler. Go to:  http://users.rider.edu/~suler/photopsy/clones.htm to see his masterful use of "clones" to illustrate psychological concepts.