The Self-Portrait: "Who do you think you are!?"

Out of all the traditional subject matter (still life, landscape and portraiture) the most confrontational of them all is by far the realm of the self-portrait. It can almost be seen as some form of self-torture where one is made to glare at one's mug for days, even months. Sometimes I'm sure it must feel as if the mirror is playing a documentary in real-time of the artist as he struggles to fulfill his vision. 

'Self-Portrait with Ancestor' 2008 By Daniel Monteath

I never really made myself go through the torture side of the self-portrait so much. I just drew a grid on a photo I took and painted it as if by numbers. Easy peasy! What artists back before photography would have done must have been extensive. Mirrors, lighting, keeping still, getting all the angles just right all the time. Model and artist in one. It's intense. I almost can't believe it exists and that I have been naive to it's awesome power. 

I would really like everyone in the world to participate in like a world Self-portrait day with the purpose of self-reflection and appreciation. I really feel that painting ones portrait is a massive act of respect and adoration, a glorification of an image, if you will. I think it's a very important phenomenon.

Some might say it's an example of Narcissism. However many self-portraits I've seen have not always been flattering for the artist. I also have noted that several artists have taken more metaphorical approaches to the traditional portrait format. I remember seeing a readymade sculpture that was titled 'Self-portrait' for example. 

'Self-portrait with river and sacrificial doe' 2012 By Daniel Monteath

This self-portrait was done using white acrylic on black canvas. I like that it has a quirky, stylised look. I also gave myself a faun ear. I wanted to start looking at the image in terms of angles and lines. I was really getting into the fine brush i was using and started drawing some lines that were very gestural and circular. This reminded me of the Disney style that I wanted to develop further. It's amazing how much depth you can achieve via this method.

'Self-Portrait with Ghostman on Skis'  2012 By Daniel Monteath

'Self-Portrait with Ghostman on Skis' is a study of my head looking up towards the ceiling. I gave myself faun ears in this painting as well. Pretty much, I was fascinated by the idea of transforming my image by creating a context that was purely designed to disguise the image. This is very much a meditation on a Dali technique that provides the viewer with a surprise image after an initial first inspection. 

Next blog entry: Creating Self-portraits in the Recording Studio.

Recording at SIT Sound in Invercargill 2012

The Creation of "Dali Disney Pablo Baby!"

It all started in 2006. There was a Picasso exhibition in Melbourne with over 300 artworks. A couple of months ago, I found the book about the exhibition that a friend, Bridget Irvine, had purchased for me from the Melbourne Art Gallery Bookshop. Flicking through the book, Radiohead lyrics started to resound in the brainsphere and I wondered what their term 'Pablo Honey' was even supposed to mean. I never really got Picasso. Like I knew he was really clever and famous and revolutionary but I never got the genius part and always just saw his work as kinda just childish, dare I say it. It was around these sorts of questions that I became fixated and adamant that I would find the secret to the genius that is The Pablo Picasso.

So these were the main facts I found out:

• Pablo was a passionate Spanish man who showed great sketching abilities from a young age. 
• He had a documented love affair with photographer Dora Maar
• His most famous work Guernica was known for it's anti-war, not-so-patriotic stance that gained it extra cred at the World Fair Picasso submitted it to.
• His work is largely manifestations on the ideas of love and war.
• He uses a lot of Mythic creatures, archetypes and other symbols in his work.

After studying many of the Guernica photographs taken by Dora Maar over the month or so it took Pablo to paint the mural, it became increasingly obvious to me that there were many paintings under the finished Guernica and that the final mural looks considerably masked up and concealed in comparison to some of it's earlier states.

I then wondered:

• Did Picasso create several Guernica murals? 
• Were the photographs of Dora Maar hiding the secrets of this project?   
• Was Picasso a master draftsman and were his paintings really just hidden boardgames waiting for the curious artists of the future to fill in the gaps?
• Is cubism a minimalists version of surrealism?
• What would it look like if Dali and Picasso jammed a painting? What would happen if Disney then came along with his paintbrush and touched it up with a bit of circling Hollywood Romanticism?

Detail from 'Pablo? Come here please,' 2012 By Daniel Monteath 

And so it was birthed, 'Dali Disney Pablo Baby!'... it would be my new direction. And it wouldn't stop there baby. There were many artistic Superbands waiting just on the horizon. I could feel it.

So I turned the Guernica murals upside down and on it's side and looked at many of Picasso's other works for clues and trends as if I were a Sherlock Holmes-type character or an Art Historian or... James Bond.

'Dali Pablo Disney Monty Baby!' 2012 By Daniel Monteath 

And I researched the artists: where they came from, where they studied, who they were friends with, their most famous works, photos, odd anecdotes...you get the picture. So enlightened with all this new information I revisited The Guernica. With new eyes, I thought to myself "Picasso has painted his artwork to look naive and childish but what if everything was for a reason in the rubix cube flurry that is Guernica."

• What if Picasso did everything on Guernica for a reason?
• Did he leave clues to what was lurking in it's many areas of darkness and shadow?
• If you finish certain lines or shapes in Guernica will other forms come to light?

'Young Dali Honey!' 2012 By Daniel Monteath

So after drafting up many lines on many of the Guernica states I revealed a great many things. At some points, it even started to manifest up out of the wall and all my friends were there and it was an Art Party. I can conclude that it was more important to focus on filling in the gaps with my own Guernica, one that included an amalgamation of Dali and Disney and Duchamp and Da Vinci and Mapplethorpe and Matt Groening and Banksy and all the other fun bits. A mix of my New Zealand exoticism with Spanish eroticism, finished with a scoop of Disney Romanticism was to become the ultimate artistic vision. This blog is merely steps towards this target and is to be continued....

'Pablo clippings of a Dali Monty Baby!' 2012 by Daniel Monteath

'Pablo, Monty & the 4 Horsemen' 2012 By Daniel Monteath

Some studies are also more like a jam on a particular idea and are sometimes only loosely related to the themes they start with. Like 'Pablo, Monty & the 4 Horsemen' above. It really just started as a 2D Pablo doodle and morphed into a narrative involving a cavalcade of out-of-it horsemen characters. A school boy impersonating Napoleon acts as the harbinger to the apocalyptic events that follow above and below. I'm all about creating the perfect blend of ridiculousness.

Next blog entry: The Magic Trick that is The Self-portrait...

'Self-portrait with Ancestor' 2008 By Daniel Monteath