Painting Class 2021

Based on this background from Raggedy Ann and Andy: a Musical Adventure

I feel like this piece and the one after it require some context: I hate self portraits. It's not that I don't like the way I look, I do! I just never like the way a representation of my face transfers into art when I'm forced to do it with any sense of realism. It always feels wrong and off and it's an uphill struggle just finishing one. I even made them remove-able in my final piece because I liked it better without them. All self portraits are of me frowning because that's how I feel about making self portraits.

That being said, I love the way the rest of this turned out. I used a low-pile plush fur for the backing, and a long-pile black fur for the hands themselves. Painting directly onto fur is a strange experience, you don't have full control of where it lies and the fluffiness of the fur and hard glossy paint create an interesting contrast. I wanted to make something you could feel even just by looking at. And I think that philosophy has continued in a lot of my recent work.