Self Portrait Series

My long term resolution for the New Year has been to 

confront my tendency toward harsh self criticism and to try 

to be more accepting of who I am and the skin I am in.

So far, I've done a series of photographic selfies, but my 

friend Shiloh, who always was and still is, smarter and more 

insightful than I am, suggested that maybe I should be 

looking at this as an art project, a la Frida Kahlo.

I contemplated that idea. It makes more sense than merely 

staring at mirror images of myself on a computer screen. I 

don't know that I will ever love photographs of myself. I 

don't know if I will ever be able to view myself without 

focusing on my flaws, but I can certainly confront and fight 

against that tendency in myself.

I picked out my first selfie of 2016 and tried to alter myself 

into art. If the standard of success is to obliterate most of 

myself from the piece, then I think I succeeded.

Still, it's a new slant on an only slightly older project. I am a 

work in progress. Long live vanity!

Kintsugi Illusions

I practiced the art of kintsugi.
I wanted to believe in flawed beauty,
that I could repair my cracks,
upgrade my broken bits
with veins of gold.
The paint never dries.

I wrapped the butchery
with gauze and illusion.
Adhering my mask,
hoping for my pound of  pretense
like so many layers of mummified sludge.

Your fisted flesh inside me
scraped my resolve.
My bandages slipped,
exposing my deception.

You manufactured 
the distance between us,
calculating the cost of repairs
for my faulty engineering,
The right angles wronged.

The paint, blighted and bitter,
Pipes had been cut.

I forgot to read the manual.


Find it here.