As noted elsewhere in this blog I acknowledge that self-portraits both reveal and conceal their subjects.
I’m also interested in the vertiginous shock of recognition I experience through these drawings. Recognition not of myself in the present moment, but of myself in the future and the past. Myself in and through suddenly vivid familial resemblances. I see other faces within my own—faces both familiar and strange, comforting and frightening.
Work in progress, graphite on vellum
Elizabeth – I think you are nailing a very important aspect of portraiture right on the head (no pun intended…). I think that the ability of an artist to invoke familial resemblance is a powerful testament to that artist ability to “mine” the resource material from which a portrait is created, and draw out the essential traits that span and are passed across generations.
A personal encounter I had relating to this issue, was a portrait I did of my grandmother for Christmas (circa 1980). My Grandmothers sister “Aunt Audrey” had a significant overbite. This orthopedic prominence is something I always noticed in my aunt Audrey, but not in my grandmother – until that fateful portrait. Not only did this familial trait (which up until this point I had not seen as such) revealed itself to me in the process of making the portrait of my grandmother, but was recognized and noted by other family members once the portrait was put on display (in my grandparents home)
I personally believe that the familial traits revealed through a given portrait is one of the hallmarks of a deeply conceived/executed portrait. The relationships/traits which span self portraits while more specific remain a fascinating domain.
- Gord MacDonald