Self Portrait between Reputation and Character

It has always been my ambition to become a portrait artist. However, as a self taught artist and someone who prefers to be alone, I find it so hard to make a self portrait.

"You cannot lay bare your private soul and look at it. You are too much ashamed of yourself. It is too disgusting. For that reason I confine myself to drawing portraits of others." - Mark Twain

To make a portrait of someone else, in my opinion, is easier because you are making it with the knowledge of capturing how someone looks like and feel at that moment alone. Where in people, on such cases, "choose to" put on a face they think is the one they would like to show the world.

Of course, I could also choose to do this but I find it so difficult to pretend and draw at the same time especially if my intention is to make my own portrait as real as possible. No one knows best the real me besides myself. Knowing this, it hinders my intention to capture "all of me", if that is even possible, in just one piece of art. I have to find another way.

I then realized that though a "face" can be deceiving..."hands" cannot.

In fact, our hands can tell a lot about ourselves.
From our palm lines to the size and shape of our hands, each part holds a special meaning that is specific only to us and our personality.
A form of art known as Palmistry is actually the art of telling the future through the study of the palm and it can also teach us a lot about our CHARACTER.

"If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of these people." - Thich Nhat Hanh

You see -
- Faces shows "what we choose to look like" to control of what others thinks of us - our REPUTATION
- Hands shows "who we are" - our CHARACTER

Bear in mind that Reputation and Character are two very different things. REPUTATION is that which people are believed to be; CHARACTER is that which people are!

Like Thomas Paine said -
"Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us."

The Vanity project shows and/or includes my hand/s in each piece as my own rendition of a self portrait because I choose to show who I really am through every lines of my hands.

I honestly think that this project does not end here as I love drawing hands - I will be creating more as I go along with my life.

As every piece is unique, to read about the description of each piece, kindly click on the corresponding FAA links on the "CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION" (The Vanity Project Gallery) so as to avoid making this blog any longer ;)

***The image (REDEMPTION) I used on this blog is the "reverse" version of the piece MORTALITY

Click Here for More Information