I started September doing blind contour self portraits, then semi-blind, then adding color blah blah blah. As a subject, I found myself to be unsatisfying. I remember the Chuck Close exhibit at the Walker many many years back and even then thinking, "How can he stand to look at himself so much?" And these days when I see men with those crazy mustaches and perfect beards and perfect man buns, I am pretty sure they are standing in front of the mirror looking at themselves for a very long time. Makes me suspicious. Right, I know women do it too, but that is a different story. I wasn't having fun with my blind and semi-blind self portraits. 
I moved on to cartoon self portraits prompted by prompts from Lynda Barry's class at UW-Madison. That helped shake me up and out of where I was. For at least a year or more, I've had the ideas of a zine or mini book using text from some ridiculous text message threads, or drunken, laughter-filled cabin evening conversations, or bobbing in the lake/pool with friends meandering aimless unconnected chats.
The cartoons are small, 4.5" square, and simple. After a few, the character ended up naked. That was from an idea about us as three large Russian ladies swimming in ice cold waters; we even have names. Anyway. . . this has been fun and I look forward to my evening imaginary self self-portrait.
1. superwoman kneading sourdough, 2. naked lady in the lake on an inner-tube, 3. hotdish and gin and tonic night with friends, 4. boring semi-blind self portrait, added here to show how uninspiring that exercise was for me.
Next steps--
Add more people. Add clothes. Add more expressions/actions.
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