squawk

When a mother and father make love, they lie next to each other, very close, kissing and hugging. The father’s penis gets very hard and he puts it into the mother’s vagina. The young caterpillar enters the flower bud and devours the folded flower parts, then exits by a round lateral hole and enters another bud which it precedes to empty in the same fashion. After the first stage of fruit formation, it attacks the young fruit, penetrating it laterally via the receptacle. Depending on the season, it also attacks tender young shoots and leaves which it joins together to form a web. It also penetrates developed fruits by boring a gallery in the skin. This feels very nice to both of them, and it is a special way to show each other how much they love each other. A liquid called semen comes out of the father’s penis into the mother’s vagina. The young caterpillar spins silken threads which cover the attacked inflorescences. If the time is right, the mother will have a little egg, so tiny you couldn’t even see it, inside of her uterus. If the liquid from the father’s penis meets that little egg, a baby will start to grow in her uterus. A few hours later, the female lays 1 to 3 eggs on a flower bud then moves to another. Total observed fertility: 60 to 150 eggs. 

In response so Dana’s questions:

What would your Self-Portrait look like? (keep in mind the image of Labille-Guiard’s Self-Portrait)
What elements would you include in the background?
What clothes would you be wearing?
What would you be doing?
Would you face the viewer directly or not?
How big would it be?
Does the image of your Self-Portrait change if the intended viewer changes?
I have done countless self portraits, but I put up the 5 most developed recent ones, and I will talk about 3 of them below.

The Apple Never Rots Far From the Tree- Portrait of the Artist and Her Grandfather. 2006. Stoneware, commercial underglazes, enamel

Self Portrait as a Pot. 2006. stoneware and acrylic paint

Self Portrait. 2006. oil on canvas

Self Portrait. 2007. pastel on paper

Self Portrait in Van Gogh’s Wheatfields. 2007. watercolor

The first is a sculptural portrait of me and my grandfather, who was an artist. My approach to this self portrait is similar to Adelaide Labille-Guiard because it features a male family figure who was also an artist. His grinning skeletal face expresses his presumed approval of my art making, and I am eating a chunk of him which implies my desire to emulate his artistic qualities. As Vigee Lebrun possibly grips at an absent phallus, I too address the issue of gender in my self portrait. I intentionally depicted myself without any superficial characteristics thought to be feminine. I have no hair and the body of a worm, so that I am not defined by sexuality in this portrait, but by my personality. My eating him implies my desire to be like this male figure, very similar to Vigee Lebrun gripping her invisible phallus. This portrait is a representation of my mind and relationship with my grandfather rather than myself as a physical being.

The self portrait in oil is nearly the opposite, because it is more focused on physicality and sensuality. It is about life size, and the gaze is looking directly at the viewer. The sensuality of this portrait parallels Adelaide Labille-Guiard and her plunging neckline. I painted myself wearing the pod earrings that look like vaginas. Earrings are culturally feminine objects, and the vaginal pods reference fertility and feminine sexuality. The pink shirt can be interpreted in a similar way. However, the complicated expression on my face and direct downward gaze at the viewer takes the portrait beyond an image of cliché woman symbols. The downward gaze is really indefinable, but it references portraits of royalty who looked down at the viewer to show their power and authority. The diagonals in the background reinstate the subtle drama of the downward gaze.

The last portrait I painted in Paris this summer. I’m standing in the field where Van Gogh shot himself. The black sweater I wear is reminiscent of the crows in one of his last paintings. The background shows my experience in France this summer and indicates a desire to connect myself to an admired artist of the past, comparable Vigee Lebrun imitation Rubens in her self portrait.