For the next phase of our Studio project, we are to create a series of self portraits that conceptually capture the essence of our past and present lives. Closely engaging with the ‘I remember’ list as well as our individual postcards, this assignment ultimately allows us to draw upon both conventional and non-conventional notions of Portraiture to depict our self in a multi-faceted way. Here are examples and inspirations of Artists who demonstrate this very idea, challenging basic ideologies of the way artist may identify with themselves while epitomising how society is constantly influencing the art world.

Chuck Close – I am not trying to make facsimiles of photographs. Neither am I interested in the icon of the head as a total image. I don’t want the viewer to see the whole head at once and assume that that’s the most important aspect of my painting. I am not making Pop personality posters like the ones they sell in the Village. That’s why I choose to do portraits of my friends–individuals that most people will not recognize. I don’t want the viewer to recognize the head of Castro and think he has understood my work

Cindy Sherman– Universally known for her distortion of the concept of self portraiture- utilising costume, make-up and digital manipulation to exacerbate her excessive passion of self exploration and “using my face as a canvas…”

“I’ll see a photograph of a character and try to copy them on to my face. I think I’m really observant, and thinking how a person is put together, seeing them on the street and noticing subtle things about them that make them who they are.”

“There’s a theory that there were so many women photographers at the time because we felt nobody else was doing it. We couldn’t or didn’t really want to go into the male-dominated painting world, so since there weren’t any artists who were using photographs, we thought, ‘Well, yeah, let’s just play with that.’ “