In January 2022, I began a year-long, weekly series of double self-portraits painted from a ‘selfie’. One painted directly from the digital photo and the other from its mirror image. Each pair is painted in monotone with a ‘black’ that I mixed that week. They are painted in oil on 16”x20” paper and I completed each pair in one 3-4 hour sitting. Once the paintings dried, they were put away, each week beginning a new exploration.

This weekly practice of painting ‘slow selfies’ in a hyper-fast society with technology-enhanced instant access to images and ideas taught me much about my relationship to traditional portrait painting, photography, art history, social media, my aging countenance, my joy and grief, my life, and my art practice. Below is a selection from the series.