Self Portrait Project
First off, my name is Amber Audra Valentine. I'm a multi-media artist from Detroit, Michigan. You might know that already. If you don't, now you do.
This self portrait project came about easily enough. I was scanning collages and I decided to scan myself.
There's a moment in the documentary The Woodmans where Francesca Woodman brings a ton of flour into her studio and puts it on the floor. The lays down in it, filming the whole time, and eventually gets up. She gasps and whispers "What a wonderful shape!" Then, louder, she says "Oh, I'm so pleased!" To me, that moment is the exact documentation of how it feels to perfectly capture your artistic intent and emotion in your medium. And when I first laid down on that scanner, that was exactly how I felt.
"Oh, I'm so pleased!"
The interesting thing is that my first scanner portrait was taken while I was actively trying to seek outpatient therapy for anorexia. In the midst of taking these portraits, I had a related hospital stay, and while these images are not displayed in a linear order, I think the viewer can see how light and playfulness begans to emerge in the pictures as recovery begins to take hold.
These are a work in progress.
Recovery is a work in progress.
I scan a lot of things being a collage artist so I might as well start scanning myself too.