Layers of Meaning

Self Portraits: Neel and Ringgold

Still more on self portraits... June Underwood was kind enough to introduce the topic to her Ragged Cloth Cafe group and there have been many interesting thoughts from that list. June has been reflecting on the interest of the face as it grows older: "puddle faced", she calls it. What she is seeing is the reality of the lifts and furrows that we are all gaining each day, in contrast to the slick, shiny skin that we see in the mass media.

Painter Alice Neel celebrates these irregularities in the portraits that she made from the 1930s-80s. Neel's most famous portrait is probably the painting of Andy Warhol, showing the gunshot scars a murder attempt.

Terry Grant posted her wonderful self-portrait doll, which made me wonder why fiber artists appear to be more comfortable with representational portraiture as 'dolls', but often shy away from realistic portraits in 2 dimensions (not pointing fingers at anyone, just a general musing).

A wonderful example of portraiture in quilts that I missed before is Faith Ringgold. What was I thinking?!? Ringgold's quilts are poignant, funny, beautiful sermons on her life's experiences as a Black woman born in Harlem in 1930. They are also exquisite works of art.

image: Faith Ringgold, Picnic on the Grass... Alone, 1997