Five Self-Portraits: Covid Series

From the Artist: This series of self-portrait bust sculptures was done during the Covid lockdown of 2020 in my studio in Rye. The five heads were done approximately one per month from April until August. Like everyone else, I was feeling strong emotions and frustrations with the state of our country and economy and the way the pandemic was upending our lives. Creating the heads was a way for me to off-load all those feelings, helping me to process it all and move on a bit better. Looking back I can see a progression of my feelings in these works from a sort of confused or gritty enduring feeling in the early months to anger and despair in the middle months. In the final piece from August, after an afternoon visit to the beach with the wind blowing my hair back I came to some sort of accommodation and sense of cautious resolve that we would not let this thing defeat us and that we would eventually prevail.

The pieces are simple ‘bisque’ fired clay. While they were roughly based on my actual face, as I was unable to work with a regular subject or model during 2020, they are better understood as a receptacle for emotions spun into clay.