portrait
on monday, after i visited the willem de kooning retrospective at the museum of modern art, i had my portrait painted. the artist is mark nilsson, and he had a folding table set up on the sidewalk of 53rd street outside of moma with a sign that said $40. i circled the block while he finished up another customer, and then i sat down for an hour while he painted me. i was amazed at how easy it was to keep my head still… to maintain a gaze in one direction… and ignore the audience that would gather here and there. at one point, city surveyors were on both sides of us, taking their numbers/pictures with mark and i in the middle…
when the portrait was finished, mark found a box to to protect the painting as i carried it back to my hotel, as it was really wet and thick. an italian tourist peered into the box while i waited at a crosswalk, and she made a comment that made me think she thought i should be insulted by the likeness. my eyes and mouth may seem too small for my face, but that’s the way they are in real life. and yes, i have chronic bitch face. but for $40, i now have a portrait of myself. and i love it.
last night mark sent me a video that 2 film students made when he first started doing street portraits. you can watch it here.
update, october 2012: mark was featured in the new york times. article here.
October 19th, 2011 at 8:09 am
very cool
October 19th, 2011 at 8:20 am
;D for th cbf!! One has been told I have s stare that kills
is it wrong to say it makes me proud?
October 19th, 2011 at 9:44 am
i don’t know about your eyes & mouth being too small for your face and all that other stuff cause i think you’re a pretty girl. i love the painting with all it’s textures and can’t imagine sitting there for an hour. that was a feat in itself!
October 19th, 2011 at 11:45 am
Ha! I have chronic bitch face too
But I love the portrait; it might not look like a photograph of you, but there’s a thoughtful expression and a poise to it.
October 19th, 2011 at 7:17 pm
I saw this morning but was busy getting my ass ready for work…I love that you did this!!! o agree with jesse’s assessment. but I don’t know what you are talking about with the bitch face. or I should say I’ve never seen it in person. i have chronic sneer face. now I have to check out your links.
October 19th, 2011 at 10:49 pm
I love it! He is fearless with the paint ( I could take a lesson from that). I may have to get one myself!
October 20th, 2011 at 10:39 am
its so expressive. I really like this alot.
October 20th, 2011 at 2:37 pm
it’s awesome!
October 22nd, 2011 at 1:03 pm
fa-bu-lous.
embracing cbf condition
October 22nd, 2011 at 7:22 pm
Hey now.
AWESOME portrait.
CBF sounds like a terrible misinterpretation of “Strong Beautiful Woman Face”?
October 23rd, 2011 at 2:24 pm
Hooray for chronic bitch-face! (Me too!)
And yay for a beautiful souvenir with a cool story!
October 24th, 2011 at 1:49 pm
I also have chronic bitch face. I like to tell myself it keeps the annoying people away, and filters through to the folks nice enough to see past my CBF.
Love the portrait! Beautiful color scheme—it’ll be a nice bright spot, come winter.