Old Classics

"I Wish I Could Remember Your Face"

I painted this in 1999/2000 when I was starting to finally get my "art-mojo" working for the first time. Every painting I do is a self portrait, no matter the subject or image. At this time, I was trying to overcome the pain of a therapist who was the first ever to help me out of very serious depression. He was only a resident, and took care of me for several months. At that point he probably knew more about me than anyone else. A few months later, he took a new job after his residency was over. I was blindsided by this, still extremely sick, and devastated. I did many paintings like this to work my pain out. For the first time I realized how much power and healing there is in expressing yourself on canvas. I've painted ever since.

How to Really Screw Up A Painting

So...when I last posted this painting it looked like this:

Which is totally fine and dandy, I was happy. But it's still not done.

So, the last time I worked on it, I tried to add some..."personality", I guess one would say. So I added an upturned lip, some teeth, and made the eye bigger, and unhappily it then looked like this...

And damn! I was pissed with myself. It's too cartoonish and less realistic (relatively speaking)! Since this photo though, I went away for the Christmas holiday and went back to the painting the same night I came home. It's looking better now, I backtracked a good bit. So, until the next updated evo, your going to have to look at this misstep. Enjoy! Or...not? Up to you.
Both photos copyright Jeni Fitts, 2014