I’m going to claim that this was taken in response to our resetting our self-portraits in terms of famous photographs/paintings. It’s a Rembrandt self-portrait, see?
Actually, this is in the restroom of Café Lily in Decatur, where we went to celebrate Ginny’s birthday. I liked the look, and quite frankly, I liked the way I looked, so I took a photo.
It’s a nice portrait, I think, although usually I despise self-portraits with the camera in the mirror.
Next Saturday, September 20, I need my fellow Lichtenbergians to assist me in Contemplation of the Labyrinth. You can read about my dilemma here. As Herodotus tells us, whenever the Persians had an important decision to make, they’d get drunk and chat it over. Then, if their solution still made sense the next morning, they went with it. 7:00ish, shall we say? Yes, Jeff, we can call it a Committee of the Whole meeting of the Joseph Campbell Roundtable.
The Assignment: design and execute a candle-holder for the labyrinth. It can be funky, it can be mysterious, it can be beautiful.
Some examples:
Ginny found this one on Tybee Island, made by a hippie artisan. He takes random metal objects, in this case a champagne glass (?) and welds tubes to them. Then you drive rebar into the ground and stick the object on it. Clever, and it admits of all kinds of possibilities.
See how simple this can be? A travertine paving stone with three tealights arranged on it.
This was a planter we picked up in a junk shop. The glow from the candles in the pots is quite lovely. I’ve extended this idea by taking citronella candles, transferring them to clay pots, and burying the pots in the ground. I also have a dozen of the small pots which I keep rearranging.
We had this old tin wall sconce hanging about, so I screwed it to a bit of 2×2 and planted it over in the ivy. What I want to do is tile it with bits of mirror.
Keep thinking: dead tree limbs with platforms—hanging lanterns—elaborate standing devices—folk art manqué—anything goes. You can make something for the periphery of the yard, for the table, for the labyrinth itself. Use the meeting to get some ideas of the area and what might be interesting. The only requirement I have is that lighting and replacing of candles needs to be easy.
Let’s make this assignment due at the Annual Meeting, December 20.
Ha! You want multiple personalities? Here’s six! Take that, Funt! And I get to be all of mine, so there!
I think I would replace the lower left one with one of me out in the Lichtenbergian space, and of course the two in the study aren’t really different, other than to show the astounding range of dissheveledness my hair is capable of.
Not very creative at all as a self portrait, but Mike’s struck a chord.
I went with the easy interpretation of the challenge theme: contrast. As the month goes on I may try to do some more metaphorical interpretation, but for a quickie, I figured a study in chiaroscuro would do. I took a whole series of me in basically this pose, this composition, with the computer’s built-in camera, then ran it through a couple of filters in Photoshop. I like the original a lot, but I figured it needed to be artsier.
I like the way the strong ceiling angle behind me helps cut the whole thing in half. I also like the way the artistic filter has created large blocks of tonality, with just a few odd patches of color here and there. It was not my intention to create a mostly colorless portrait, but it works, especially since my flesh-tones provide a great deal of focus.
Self-portrait—in what way? I’m in my study, my natural habitat. I’m not looking at the camera, which is typical of my connection to the world around me, or lack thereof. I’m brightly lit and shirtless, but there is nonetheless a veil over my image. It is not clear who I am. Do I sound mysterious enough?
Go here, check out the current challenge, read all the rules, and get to it. You have all month.
I found these photographs to be beautiful. Also these and these.
Also, early next week will be a new assignment.
If anyone is interested, I can host a meeting either Friday, August 22, or Saturday, August 23. What’s everyone’s preference?
I”m not even going to provide a online slots link. Look for it yourselves and wonder.