Me

This is me. Finally, I have fallen victim to my own brush. It's not exactly how I see myself (do I really look that intense!?) but I was going for it, like I have done with all of my portraits, drawing and painting what I see and letting the moments flow together until I feel like I have a complete portrait. When I start a painting, whether it's a landscape or a portrait, I never know how it will end up. It's what keeps me going - it's an adventure - and the act of painting changes me and I come away with a different understanding and connection with who or what I just painted that I didn't have before I started.

So, I've been thinking, after completing my original goal of painting 250 portraits, how, or even IF, I would continue The Portrait Project. I have gained much from this project, both in terms of improving my skills as an artist as well as gaining a deeper connection to my friends. But I've also realized that by working with photographs - and usually without my subject's permission - that I'm denying their participation in the process of making their portrait. So, here's what I'm going to do - I'm throwing all of the names of my Facebook friends (currently there are 477) back into my "friend jar" (The "friend jar" is a jar that sits next to my desk that has the names of all of my Facebook friends whose portraits I haven't done. I reach into this jar without looking and take a name out when I'm ready to paint a portrait) ((really, I do this)). But this time, I'm going to do "live" portraits - as many as possible - rather than working from photographs. I hope you will all join me on this new and exciting journey.

OK! Let's make some art and see what happens. Should be fun...

8x11 pencil and watercolor. #253