postmortem self portrait
This artwork began as a marker sketch while I was a design student back in 1992. The initial drawing had my putrefying corpse bent midway in an “L-shaped” position, which would have required a very custom canvas. My knowledge of art at that time was very limited, and the concept was completely from within my mind, there was no real inspiration for it. Perhaps the idea was born out of the classroom lectures given to me by special effects makeup artist <a href=”http://www.savini.com”>Tom Savini </a>(Night of The Living Dead , Creep Show, etc.) on how he got his research for the living dead from morgue photos and holocaust imagery.
I believe, however, that I was more interested in creating an artwork that would speak to the utter garish and ridiculous colors and changes that the body undergoes as it putrifies. Hollywood corpses are pristine compared to the real things, just do a Google search on the stages of human decay (putrefication being the worst). The food additive chemicals are something that has always bothered me both physically and mentally.
I’ve always thought to myself ”the chemicals are to preserve organic proteins…wait….I am made of proteins….what are they doing to my body?”. Subsequent warnings of these hidden poisons have been posted year after year ever since the “enlightenment” of food safety science began in the 1970′s. I started to write down some of the most nefarious sounding food chemicals every time I cam across them over the years, though I was never quite sure how to incorporate them into my post-mortem artwork. Whether they are toxic or just simply minerals with imposing names, I decided to just simply write them around my corpse; this is my body AND my composition.
My first attempt at it was going to be a flattened sculpture on canvas (see images). I decided to present myself at half scale (50%) on a 24″ x 48″ canvas (which is what the ratio the final used as well). The piece was essentially complete, but I was never really content with it. That particular version just didn’t capture my vision from all those years ago. Hence, I tore it apart and bought a new canvas and decided to approach it differently. The sculptured parts actually worked very well as models to sketch and then paint from. The first go-around of the concept had me clothed and comparatively based on the frozen corpse of John Torrington (the famous 19th Franklin Expedition mummy). I was not born clothed, so it made sense to present myself in pure form. I also dated myself since clothing comes in and out of fashion and this is to be within my time but timeless.
Imagining oneself dead or as a corpse
has historically been caricatured through the arts, one of the best being from the great artist/painter James Ensor’s
Self Portrait in 1960 (this was of course created in 1888) . It is true that my postmortem displays me deceased in the year 2010 at the age of 38….but how long will I actually live anyway?
A larger version of this image can be found on my gallery page.
has historically been caricatured through the arts, one of the best being from the great artist/painter James Ensor’s Self Portrait in 1960 (this was of course created in 1888) . It is true that my postmortem displays me deceased in the year 2010 at the age of 38….but how long will I actually live anyway?
