this painting (above) by frida kahlo of herself and her husband, diego rivera, is pretty famous. his portraits of her (including the one below of himself and frida) aren't as well known. it's funny, i think, that he was the famous one when they met. his social and political work were very important then but they have been eclipsed over time by frida's deeply personal paintings.
these portraits by diego are part of a much larger mural.
when i arrived to class yesterday, three of my students waved these drawings at me. "we drew portraits for your website!" coocoodoodoo sang.
"this one (above) is cubist!"
obviously, the girls used their code names. mine's "thattledoo." thank you so much, girls! thattledoo.
since i started the portrait party in march, i have received a lot of offers to trade portraits. i honestly want to accept every invitation but i don't have time. to make myself more available, my wife suggested a contest.
i will trade portraits with whoever invites the most new artists to join the portrait party in the month of august.
here are the details:
1. "new artists" will be defined as anyone who has not submitted a drawing to the portrait party already.
2. new artists won't be counted until they complete a portrait swap and share the results with the rest of us.
3. the deadline to submit portraits will be august 31, 2007.
on september 1st, i will count up the new recruits and announce the winner. when our swap is complete, i will frame my portrait of you (like this) and mail it to your favorite address.
if you have questions, just let me know.
a couple of years ago, my wife and i arrived too early to a zine symposium. to kill time, we walked to the nearest park. christine sat on the swings. i took a nap on the monkey bars. klair (portrayed above by christine, christine, and me) approached my wife and they made friends.
a few hours later, i was working my table at the zine convention. klair glided by on rollar skates. she looked at my books and asked "did you draw these?" yes. "will you draw me?" sure. while klair sat for me, she farted. "did you hear that?" she asked. yes. "what do you think it was?" the chair? "yeah," she agreed, "it was the chair." i drew two portraits and gave klair the better one.
christine returned from a snack break and drew klair also. klair couldn't wait to draw too. i especially enjoy her take on christine's dimples.
before the internet was around to thread everyone together, artistic friendships were founded upon correspondence and mutual admiration. when van gogh learned that emile bernard was working with paul gauguin, vincent asked bernard to paint gauguin's portrait. bernard was to intimidated to paint the older and better known painter. so, he chickened out and painted a self portrait in van gogh's style with a portrait of gauguin in the background (above). vincent was delighted with the results. included in the package was a self-portrait by gauguin with a portrait of bernard in the background (below).
