The Making

Settle in and really look. Where does your hairline begin? How far apart are your eyes? What shape does your mouth make when you are concentrating? Some artists dive in quickly with bold, loose strokes. Others take their time, noticing details they have never studied before.

Each portrait becomes a snapshot of how you see yourself in this exact moment. One of the joys of self portraiture is watching those snapshots change over time. I still think back to the way our wild creator Olive used to draw her people — tiny round heads with stick arms and legs, eyes wide and smiling. Years later her portraits carry more detail, more expression, more of her. The process itself tells a story of growing up.

This practice of looking and translating has been around for centuries. Rembrandt painted himself more than 80 times, charting the changes of his face and his life. Frida Kahlo used self portraiture to express her inner world as much as her outer one. Children may not know those names yet, but the act of turning toward a mirror and making marks belongs to the same long, human story.