Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Self-Portrait Challenge: Self-Portrait as Creative Clones

For July, the Self-Portrait Challenge is to create a weekly "Self-Portrait as ______." I've enjoyed this challenge so much I don't want it to end! This final SP for the month was inspired by a suggestion made by Janet of Just Bee-cause. She said, "How about as quadruplets! You said in your "o" post you're an overachiever! You could be four of you!!!!" Well, before I go on I feel compelled by the anal side of my personality to point out that I never said I was an overachiever. I said I've had the experience of other people referring to me that way and I disagreed with that assessment because I don't think there's any such thing as an overachiever in the sense that the word is most often used. But still, that sparked an idea. What if I could be an overachiever? What if, on days when I want to do more than I can possibly accomplish, I could clone myself, just temporarily? In this fantasy vision, each version of me would have an assignment for the day and then at the end of the day we'd all reintegrate into one person again and the experience of every clone would be right there in my memory. I suppose there'd have to be some versions of me to do the boring-but-necessary tasks, like house cleaning, cooking, laundry, paying bills, running errands. But who wants to see that? Not me! And I'd want there to at least occasionally be a version of me whose sole assignment for the day would be to lay around on the couch watching old movies and taking naps, with maybe a candlelit bubblebath to top things off. I think having a day like that now and then is good for the soul, but they can be awfully hard to fit into modern life. In fact I literally can't remember the last time I had an uninterrupted "lazy day" unless I was too sick to do anything else. That's kind of sad. But the ones I'd find most interesting would be the creative clones! I love the idea that I could do all my favorite creative things all at once instead of having to choose what to focus on. So here are those clones - a me who is drawing, one who's writing, one who's reading, one who's doing a collage, one who's sewing, and the one you can't see who is behind the camera documenting it all. "Self-Portrait as Creative Clones" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window) Janet, I know you stop by pretty much every day, so you probably already know that your prize choices are either a 4" x 6" fabric postcard or an 8" x 10" print of one of my DATs. Email me and let me know your snail mail addy and what you'd like!