Self Portrait

I was asked about doing a self portrait and I found it an interesting idea. I had done a self portrait in 2013 when I was still doing xerox copies on painted canvas. I was experimenting with deconstructing and piecing things back together, my attempt at humor in the uptight quilt world. It was piece entitled In the Fourth Grade the Artist Discovered Picasso. It was in a QSDS show held at the prestigious Riffe Gallery in Columbus, Ohio. Every once in a while PBS runs a half hour show of Tracy Rieger and Linda Fowler explaining the art and there I am in the background. It still makes me laugh and now it hangs in my hallway, I'm still laughing, it was a clever idea and it worked!

Now this new girl has appeared on my design wall. She's quite a bit younger maybe four or five years old. I'm sure my mother carefully wrapped my hair in rags and combed out curls in the morning, a perfect Shirley Temple "do". I was missing a front tooth which the photographer retouched. My mother had great hopes of turning me into a girly girl. Alas she also provided me with five brothers, I was seated right in the middle of all their maleness. I like to wear dresses but I am just as comfortable (Ok, maybe a little bit more so) in a t-shirt and jeans. Of course growing up in the late sixties bell bottoms, poor boy tops and sneakers were all the rage. We took the culture away from suits and dresses into casualness. I'm not sure it was all good, but I don't think I want to wear a girdle, hat with matching bag, gloves and high heels either.

Maybe I am being contemplative because my 50th high school reunion is this summer. Hard to think about when we were the generation who thought you died when you turned thirty five. The joke is on us!