The look that looks at itself
I’ve painted one or two self-portraits in my short time as an artist. Okay, the number is closer to twenty in the last eight years. Clearly, the self-portrait is something I enjoy! I feel freer to do a certain kind of learning with my own face rather than with someone else’s.
Adding significantly to the tally is the fact that I include a self-portrait in each one of my conceptual series as a way of acknowledging my biases in the work and anchoring the series in my own experience.
Gwenn Seemel
Self-portrait
1997
acrylic on canvas board
14 x 18 inches
I painted this self-portrait for a Continuing Education painting class at the PNCA when I was sixteen. Until this piece, I had completed just one painting in acrylic: a rather unconvincing copy of Van Gogh’s Starry Night 1888 for a project in a high school French class when I was fourteen. There’s a certain Van Gogh thickness to the way the paint is applied in this portrait. I’ve since taken to watering down my paints instead of painting in relief.
Gwenn Seemel
Self-portrait
2000
acrylic on printed fabric
24 x 24 inches
I was still at university when I painted this. It was my first painting on stretched material. I painted on a printed fabric wall decoration that my mother had put up in my room when I was a child. The fabric was a bit flimsy to be working on without a backing, but I was hooked!
Gwenn Seemel
My Own Worst Critic
2003
acrylic on canvas
48 x 34 inches
This portrait is part of the series Critics Critiqued. I was putting the final touches on the series, when I realized that I had omitted at least one critic worth putting in the hot seat. I am still my own worst critic…!
Gwenn Seemel
Self-portrait (Hepatica Blossom)
2004
acrylic on canvas
48 x 34 inches
This is how I like to think I am—strong, almost Amazonian!—but my friends tell me I really look more like My Own Worst Critic. Self-portraits: a separate kind of truth!
Gwenn Seemel
Gwenn (Thirty Years)
2004
acrylic on canvas
17 x 11 inches
Part of a group of five portraits I painted for my parents’ thirtieth wedding anniversary: portraits of the whole family, including the dog.
Gwenn Seemel
Artist As News Anchor
2004
acrylic on canvas
36 x 24 inches
This painting is from Snow Days. I cast myself as the narrator, helping the audience access a different side of the trusted strangers whom we invite into our homes every day.
Gwenn Seemel
Gwenn Monkey
2004
acrylic on canvas
19 x 13 inches
This portrait is from the Trickster Project, a series in collaboration with a theater piece.
Gwenn Seemel
Toadstone
2005
acrylic on bird’s eye
11 x 9 inches
I painted this as a palette experiment and a materials experiment.
Gwenn Seemel
Gwenn Seemel (Portrait Artist)
2005
acrylic on canvas
17 x 21 inches
This painting belongs to the series Private Masks. The subjects in this series all work with death on a daily basis, so I almost didn’t include myself in the series. Then it hit me that portraits have everything to do with posterity.
Gwenn Seemel
Contributing Member Of Society
2005
acrylic on canvas
24 x 18 inches
This portrait is part of Public Faces. An artist should be a contributing member of society.
Gwenn Seemel
Delightfully Naive
2006
acrylic on canvas
20 x 20 inches
Part performance art, part traditional portraiture, this piece belongs to Mutually Beneficial.
Gwenn Seemel
Before And After: She Can Call Herself A Woman
2006 and 2007
both acrylic on bird’s eye
34 x 96 inches (together)
This diptych brought together everything I was thinking in Swollen.
Gwenn Seemel
Liberty
2007
acrylic on linen
42 x 19 inches
I painted this self-portrait for Apple Pie.
Gwenn Seemel
This Is Not A Bag (Self-portrait)
2007
acrylic on canvas patchwork bag
13 x 13 inches
This is the first of my portable portraits.
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CATEGORIES: - Philosophy - On portraiture -
(4) Comments / Commentaires: The look that looks at itself
Thank you, Catherine.
I know I have things that I hold back on and then something will click—someone will say something—and suddenly the time is right and I can act. I’m glad I could be part of the something that clicked for someone else!
Portraiture is my specialty, and I have shown my work to every gallery owner in Door County, WI and Scottsdale (Sedona), AZ. I researched the best of the best galleries before traveling to both areas. All gallery owners ooh’ed and aah’ed at my talent, but said it is unsalable simply because my medium of choice is B/W charcoal. It has to be under glass because it is fragile, will not ship, and color is what people want (except for commissioned pieces for which I have no clue as to how to draw an audience). I too, draw from the soul (refusing to use formal sittings) and can also draw someone only after I spend time with them, so I can choose my style, but have been told I need to use color and a medium that can be shipped, since charcoal is too fragile. (I refuse to switch to salable scenery as I would feel like a prostitute.) Self-portraits were my start, as the model was free, I can crumple it up and throw it in the garbage, no one to say I didn’t look “happy,” and it is cheap psychological therapy. I too have trouble parting with my art, as “my children” are very close to me. So, I give it away and keep track of the owners, so I can show. I gave up my position as Chair at SCAD to do this, so made a huge leap already…. but I am chicken and procrastinating. I do need to pay the bills, however. I haven’t painted since I was an undergrad, and then only in oils. Have you had any experience with water soluble oils? I’m a control freak and the longer drying time would give me some comfort. Sorry this got long. Sometimes if you break your words into paragraphs, they “send.” Thanks.
I’ve never used any kind of oils or acrylic retarders. I’m sorry that the logistics of your medium of choice are too complicated for dealers.
As for finding an audience for your commission work, my method has been to create conceptual shows. I make work in series (like this one for example) and find that it’s easier to promote a unified body of work. Instead of saying “I’m showing a bunch of portraits,” I get to say “I’m showing a bunch of portraits of first and second generation Americans that explore what it means to be American.” People can connect with the latter statement a lot more easily, and once they hear about my work this way they often commission me. I’m not sure if it’s the right route for you but it has worked for me!
Good luck and bon courage!
Catherine Case...
You are my inspiration. I couldn’t stop watching. This morning, I am doing my first piece of non-commissioned fine art, in decades. As an art professor, I have lost faith in our academic downcline. I have given all I have to give to my students and it has drained me. The clock is ticking, and I have been more afraid of life, than death. Thank you ever so much. Ever so much. I just happened to land on your site. Maybe it didn’t just happen. I would love to shoot you just one single piece of art. A self-portrait. It’s time to start living and lose my fear of doing so.
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