Self-portrait as Loplop’s sister
In this recent self-portrait I have attempted to comment on and signal my artistic influences by referencing artist-naturalists, artists, and natural history publications. I wanted to create a space that appears spare in comparison to the excesses of, for example, Dutch still life scenes, yet a space that would trigger associations with this painting genre. While I would desire to set up a comparison with Dutch paintings, my self-portrait also borrows its overall pictorial organization from the 17th century Spanish still-life painter, Juan Sanchez Cotan (1560-1627). The foreground shelf space typical of Cotan’s work is set against a darkened inset area from which my presence emerges as the sister of the 20th century Surrealist artist Max Ernst’s bird-human creature, Loplop. Ernst’s character Loplop appears in many of his works, most particularly in his 1934 collage novel, Une Semaine de Bonte. In my own work in painting and within The Alternate Encyclopedia, I have often used the image of a bird as a surrogate for the self or for woman. The gesture of my open hand is loosely based on the only known depiction of the artist-naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) from an 18th century engraving. |