I approached the topic of self portrait from three different places that I feel expresses my true self and where I am today. The first image I was inspired to create had to include all five of my children as they are a huge extension of my self. Everything was clear in my mind from the very beginning as to how I would take the photograph and later artistically enhance it. I knew that I wanted to be the main focus in the image and to do this I chose to present myself in a simplified color style with a gaze directly at the viewer. With the children, I chose to have their gazeaway from the viewer, and presented them in a grainy black and white finish, to create less emphasis on them. In the end I was quite happy with how the image turned out but felt that I needed another image to show how my internal self feels at this particular time.
While on a day trip to the mountains, I was inspired to document various groups of poplar trees, I loved their long skinny trunks and the vertical pattern they created by being lumped together so closely. Inside I was feeling a strong desire to paint the trees on a vary large canvas to recreate the vertical pull I was feeling. But reality set in ,and at this point in my life I have too many other commitments to my family, school, and my two creative businesses, no time. With this piece I wanted to recreate the emptiness I was feeling inside after having to suppress these creative urges. To achieve this feeling I decided to make myself void of color, my gaze was off in the distance not wanting to interact with the viewer. The three canvases are also void of color as they wait as I do until a place in time when I will be ready to fill them. You will notice that the trees, paint brushes and camera lens are full of color, this is because they are always there waiting for me to just get to it and paint. The day I pick up the brush is the day I will be filled with color as well as the three canvases, I will be alive once more in my creative soul. The third image was created to show an artistic rendering of me today. I was surprised at how fast this image came to completion. During the creative process I played around with having the image in color, but in the end I decided to keep it simple and present the image in black and white. Overall I think these three images really depict me as the person I am today, at this moment in time. A mother, a creative person longing to be more involved in the creative process and me, just me.
