HOME | DD

Description
8 1/2" x 12"
Watercolor

At the Perpich Center for Arts Education, all the Visual Arts Juniors are given an assignment to complete during the summer, before the first day of school.
The assignment is to create two self-portraits, one external and one internal. This is my INTERNAL portrait.

Most of my inspiration came to me during a trip to Venice, Italy. Venice has a long cultural history of mask-making. During the renaissance, people in Venice would don masks (Like the "Bauta" on the table in the lower right corner) when going out for everyday life. Italy is also the birthplace of Comedia Dell'Arte, a form of masked theater.

In Venice, there are lots of shops that sell masks to tourists. Some of the stores are tacky, glittery souvenir stands, but others are real places of art. The stores I visited sold beautiful, authentic masks. Bautas, Harlequins, Voltos, Columbines, and incredible Commedia dell'Arte replicas. They also sold Plague Doctor masks, "il Medico della Peste."

What is a plague doctor? During the Black Death, when most qualified doctors had already run far far away, civilian doctors would dress in costumes —like the central figure in this painting— to protect themselves from plague and also warn others of their impending deaths.

I bought a few of these Venetian masks —a Bauta, a Medico, and a Columbina Foglia for my girlfriend— because they fascinated me.

Eventually, It was time for me to start thinking about what to do for my Perpich self-portrait project. I know what I look like on the outside, but the INSIDE? That's a mystery!

Then I realized something about masks! Masks are things that you wear on the OUTSIDE to change the way you look, in order to make it match the way you feel on the INSIDE.

This train of thought sparked a new obsession with philosophy in me, I realized that there are two worlds, the outer world of objects, and the inner world of ideas.

I used the masks I had bought as references for this painting. I researched renaissance fashion and designed the four costumes around the perimeter of the painting to represent different facets of my personality, particularly emotions. I chose to depict a fully dressed plague doctor for my objective side.

The emotions I chose for the four imaginary costumes are based on a quote:

"How do you know if you're happy or sad without a mask? Or angry? Or ready for dessert?" —Niel Gaiman, Mirrormask

I chose to make the plague doctor the central figure because I identify with the image. I enjoy science, and I also pretend to know a little bit about medicine. I try to look at facts in an intellectual manner, etc.

...I also diagnosed my friend Danny with the bubonic plague once. I wrote him a doctor's note (in my famously illegible "doctor" handwriting) saying that he could be excused from Gym, and the teacher almost believed it.

"you have it NOW?" he asked

"Masks of eternity both cover and reveal the face of glory" ~Joseph Campbell

Description
8 1/2" x 12"
Watercolor

At the Perpich Center for Arts Education, all the Visual Arts Juniors are given an assignment to complete during the summer, before the first day of school.
The assignment is to create two self-portraits, one external and one internal. This is my INTERNAL portrait.

Most of my inspiration came to me during a trip to Venice, Italy. Venice has a long cultural history of mask-making. During the renaissance, people in Venice would don masks (Like the "Bauta" on the table in the lower right corner) when going out for everyday life. Italy is also the birthplace of Comedia Dell'Arte, a form of masked theater.

In Venice, there are lots of shops that sell masks to tourists. Some of the stores are tacky, glittery souvenir stands, but others are real places of art. The stores I visited sold beautiful, authentic masks. Bautas, Harlequins, Voltos, Columbines, and incredible Commedia dell'Arte replicas. They also sold Plague Doctor masks, "il Medico della Peste."

What is a plague doctor? During the Black Death, when most qualified doctors had already run far far away, civilian doctors would dress in costumes —like the central figure in this painting— to protect themselves from plague and also warn others of their impending deaths.

I bought a few of these Venetian masks —a Bauta, a Medico, and a Columbina Foglia for my girlfriend— because they fascinated me.

Eventually, It was time for me to start thinking about what to do for my Perpich self-portrait project. I know what I look like on the outside, but the INSIDE? That's a mystery!

Then I realized something about masks! Masks are things that you wear on the OUTSIDE to change the way you look, in order to make it match the way you feel on the INSIDE.

This train of thought sparked a new obsession with philosophy in me, I realized that there are two worlds, the outer world of objects, and the inner world of ideas.

I used the masks I had bought as references for this painting. I researched renaissance fashion and designed the four costumes around the perimeter of the painting to represent different facets of my personality, particularly emotions. I chose to depict a fully dressed plague doctor for my objective side.

The emotions I chose for the four imaginary costumes are based on a quote:

"How do you know if you're happy or sad without a mask? Or angry? Or ready for dessert?" —Niel Gaiman, Mirrormask

I chose to make the plague doctor the central figure because I identify with the image. I enjoy science, and I also pretend to know a little bit about medicine. I try to look at facts in an intellectual manner, etc.

...I also diagnosed my friend Danny with the bubonic plague once. I wrote him a doctor's note (in my famously illegible "doctor" handwriting) saying that he could be excused from Gym, and the teacher almost believed it.

"you have it NOW?" he asked

"Masks of eternity both cover and reveal the face of glory" ~Joseph Campbell