The Self-Isolation Residency 3rd April 2020: Day 5

'The Ambassadors', Hans Holbein the Younger, The National Gallery, London,
Google Arts & Culture

I'm taking sometime to get into this project, as usual when I begin something entirely new there is a research period where at first very little appears to be happening, except to my eyes. To some extent this blog is my way of sharing what I am thinking and researching; these notes are actually a somewhat edited version of my own work notes.

As far as my thinking has gone, basically I am imagining creating a form of self portrait, but not necessarily a pictorial one. I am more interested in the 'ephemera' that often surrounds the subject of a portrait, that creates the sitters 'environment' so to speak. Historically when painted portraits were planned the objects that suround the sitters were very carefully selected to help to tell the story of the sitter. Open books would tell us that the sitter could read, a pen or quill in their hand that they could write. Globes and maps tell us that they have traveled and gained knowledge and of course the skull tells us that they are dead thinkers because they know that man is mortal. There are many more such elements scattered throughout the world of the portrait. Even today's photographers will try to do the same; the study of such 'environmentalism is quite fascinating. The 'Ambassadors' (top of post) is a perfect example of this idea of environmentalism. If you are interested in the subject click here for a fairly simplified article from Google Arts and Culture introduces the idea and which you may find interesting.

So must of my day today has involved me trying to describe myself and decide how I can then render that idea of me visually, all I will say for now is its a work in progress.