Self-portaits. Kinda sorta.

Have you read the Glittermoon Vintage Christmas tagline (it’s the statement below the title of the blog)?  Where it says: “And occasional detours just for fun.”  Well, here we go.

I am almost finished the second installment of Alan Bradley’s wonderfully clever mysteries starring eleven-year old Flavia de Luce, a delightfully precocious child with a penchant for poison. The first was “The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie” and I urge you to go to your bookseller post-haste if you have not yet read it.  You are in for a delicious treat.

Anyway,  at some point in the one I am reading now, Flavia refers to one of my most favorite paintings of all time: The Arnolfini Portrait, which was painted in 1434 by Jan Van Eyck.  (Have I ever mentioned to you that I earned my college degree in art history?)

Here it is, in all its glory.

Flavia reminded us that Jan Van Eyck is believed to have painted himself in the reflection seen in the convex mirror in the background.  

He is the fellow in the red cap way in the back.  Almost inconceivable in its detail, the mirror features the Passion of Christ around the edge.  But I digress….

As I was writing the last post, Behind the Curtain, I got to thinking about all those little reflections of me that inevitably show up when I photograph Glittermoon Vintage Christmas.  And then I thought of the Van Eyck.

Perhaps my thinking is not exactly linear here but it seems to me that no matter the medium – or amount of talent – an artist leaves a little bit of his or her self behind in each creation.  That regardless of whether or not his/her image actually appears in the work, it is still a self-portrait of sorts.  So in every one of my photographs, greeting cards, or vintage Christmas pieces, you get a little bit of me along with it.   And I like that because I don’t believe that any “artist” creates an oevre to keep to themselves;  we do it to share with you.  What do you think?