A little spin on the old story of Narcissus. Narcissus, as you may well know, was a quite lovely Greek youth enamoured by his own image. He pined away his days staring at his own reflection, eventually growing roots in the ground- punished by the gods for his vanity, he was transformed into the Narcissus flower. Of course this is the root of modern English words like narcissist and narcissistic.
In this work I wanted to spin that old myth in a different direction. As an artist I find myself working for hours and hours, days at a time on my artwork. When I rest from my painting I find myself staring at the result, intrigued by my own work. I love painting and I’m in love with my work. Now, it’s often said that art is but an extention of the artist. If that’s the case then it goes to follow that I’m a bit of a narcissist myself, albeit of a different sort.
The joke in this piece is that it’s a self-portrait. But I’m staring down at my work, which happens to be a Narcissus flower (Narcissus poeticus, to be exact), the work being but a different reflection of myself.
The original was completed in watercolor and gouache media on Arches 180lb. cold-press cotton rag, 2007.