Portland painter Gwenn Seemel 2006: a year in portraits.

SYMPATHETIC MAGIC: (n) the phenomenon based on the assumption that a person can be supernaturally affected through an object representing her-him.
In Paleolithic times, sympathetic magic took the form of cave paintings of animals that a hunter wanted to catch, as if the act of capturing a likeness made netting the real thing more possible. These days we're still very much believers. Everything from pasting a person's photo on a dart board to hanging a "thin" photo of yourself on the refrigerator qualifies, but perhaps the most enduring and endearing form that sympathetic magic still takes is the painted portrait.
After author Marc Acito had his portrait painted by me, he wrote about this aspect of portraiture. Read the full story!


	SYMPATHETIC MAGIC: (n) the phenomenon based on the assumption that a person can be supernaturally affected through an object representing her-him. In Paleolithic times, sympathetic magic took the form of cave paintings of animals that a hunter wanted to catch, as if the act of capturing a likeness made netting the real thing more possible. These days we're still very much believers. Everything from pasting a person's photo on a dart board to hanging a "thin" photo of yourself on the refrigerator qualifies, but perhaps the most enduring and endearing form that sympathetic magic still takes is the painted portrait. After author Marc Acito had his portrait painted by me, he wrote about this aspect of portraiture. Read the full story!
	In 2006, I participated in a number of group shows, including the Portland Art Center's Boredom: I Learned It By Watching You and Scott Wayne Indiana's inCLOVER. To see where 2006 took me in the solo show category check out Mutually Beneficial.