What an incredible opportunity I had this weekend. I cannot remember the last time I did a self-portrait, and looking in the mirror can be a difficult thing to do, but once you get over that initial discomfort, you’re just looking at a face. It wasn’t so much that I even wanted to do a self-portrait, but more that I wanted a shift, personally and in my work.
The weekend workshop was held at CoSM’s (Chapel of Sacred Mirrors) new art sanctuary in the Hudson Valley. Situated on 40 acres, the huge main house is under renovation since moving from their original space in NYC. I usually do not enjoy Halloween, but we spent it here and had an amazing time. Club D’Elf, one of my favorite bands, played while Alex and Allyson did live painting in full costume.
So this was obviously more than your average art class, we’re talking about visionary artist Alex Grey here, we’re talking about the ‘self’, whatever that really is. Alex, along with his wife Allyson, generously led us through a series of meditations, each designed to focus us on a specific aspect of our ‘self’. We started out Friday night with a lecture and slide show of self-portraits throughout art history. Alex is a true master and he did also give instruction on the proportions of the head, the nuances of the eye, the ear and the subtleties of light and shadow. That was a bonus.
On Saturday, the first exercise was a warm up where we did straight up self-portraits, looking in the mirror, keeping the technical ideas in mind. Next we took a look at our dark side and were to portray that. Then, our lighter side and finally leading up to our ‘god self’. On Saturday night we had a fire out in the bitter cold where I took the opportunity to burn away at that dark side a little more. That’s the side of me that holds me back from the things I want to do and who I want to be, that nasty little !@#$%-er called the ego. I think it worked because I came in and worked on a drawing in response to that and I approached it in a whole new way both technically and spiritually. I felt just a little bit more free to express, explore and play.
Allyson reminded us at the start that we weren’t to worry about completing masterpieces here but just draw, draw draw! It was so much fun to see everyone’s work and share the experience with a cool bunch of people. Alex and Allyson did each exercise along with us and shared them with us as well. It was one of the better art experiences I’ve had and I am truly grateful. If you don’t know Alex Grey’s work, CoSM or Allyson Grey, check out the link!!
“Your life is a medium for the godself”—Alex Grey
Here’s some of what I did:
