REFERENCE....

I hope you have all come up with great ideas for your self portraits. In case you are having a case of creative block (or not) I'd love for you to spend some time looking at other artists self portraits. To name a few who you should search out, there's....
Frida Kahlo of course. I know many of you are familiar with Frida's work, but maybe some of you aren't, and you should be! She is widely known for her self portraits which expressed so much. Another artist you all probably know who did many, very expressive self portraits was VanGogh. Just look at his portraits throughout his life...they tell his story. Michelangelo hid self portraits throughout his work. You can find him as human skin held up in the Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel. Possibly due to the fact that it is quite difficult to photograph yourself, or possibly the fact that most photographers really hate to be on the other end of a camera, there are not a lot of photographers that are well known for self portraits, but there are some.... Cindy Sherman has transcended time and timeless issues photographing herself. Lucas Samaras has explored developing technology using himself as a subject. One of my favorite artist/photographers is David Hockney. In the 80's and 90's (possibly longer) Hockney did fun photo collages with a great cubist feel. many of his pieces were self portraits, or included evidence of Hockney's prescience... his feet (usually showing his signature stripped socks), or his shadow, or a bag. http://www.hockneypictures.com/photos/photos_collages.php
I would love to see some of you guys tackle a Hockneyesque, or a Kahloesque piece at some point. There is always a lot to learn by looking at others work. I will try to post some of my favorites for you to look at throughout the blog. I think we will have a little history section before I sign off as your teacher as well. You should all know where we have come from in the past 180 years or so.