Sartell High School
The artwork I have chosen to respond to is "Big Self Portrait" by Chuck Close.
I have chosen this work because I really liked how he made his self portrait simple and not so glamorous because that is the way he really is. The size of the picture, the colors he chose, and the posture and pose he has chosen for his self portrait really tells his personality and how he viewa himself as a person. I am not sure exactly what he was thinking of when he did this portrait or why he chose the things he did but in my opinion it looks like he may have been pretty full of himself but knew that he was not the king of the world and relize that he did not know everything and that he is simply a normal everyday man. His posture he is in kind of has his nose sticking up in the air and that is where I got the idea that he might be to proud to admit that he is a normal everyday man with his own special characteristics. But I think by making himself with messy hair and a cigarette in his mouth it is his way of showing that he infact does relize that he is just as special as everone else he passes along on the sidewalk and that is why I chose this picture.
I have chosen to respond to this work by making a self portrait of myself in my basic everyday look. This portrait of Chuck Close is very unique because he decided to make himself in his simplist form as he would look if he was just sitting around relaxing. Chuck chose to make himself not so glamorous as many people might try and do for thier self portrait and that is what attracted me to this picture. This picture insptres me in many ways. It inspires me to be myself and to show my unique features and personnalities to other people and not to hide or be ashamed of myself. This pictures helps me have a better understanding on how I would like to portray myself if I were to do a self portrait. The colors he used are pretty plaine (black and white) but they really make the portrait. If I were to do a self portrait of myself I would choose the same colors because I am really into the plaine black and white photographs bacause in my opinion black and white photos show more meaning, emotion, and inspire you to think about the picture and what its purpose or story really is.