I have had Parkinson’s for 15 years now. I often heard people talking about living with Parkinson’s. I often wondered if they were telling me that I had a roommate that I was unaware of. Like a secret person that lived in the attic and you secretly fed him fish heads. I came to refer to him as the stranger in the room. The stranger that is always there but is difficult to see.
I wanted to give this specter a face but had no idea how to approach it. I had been doing some drawing with sumi ink. It was suggested that I draw the face of this stranger with no planning and just start drawing. Find the face. It was hard at first to draw a face that I had no idea what it looked like until it took a shape and form. To create a minimalist face. I only needed marks that represented eyes, a nose and mouth. All other marks were unnecessary. They added more information but were not required. I began doing a lot of faces, strangers that became the face of Parkinson’s. They were very liberating artistically and emotionally. I sometimes would work on four faces at a time. They were fast and charged with emotion and power. I did a lot of them. I am including several for your consideration.
On a trip to China where I was teaching, I decided to do a portrait in the style of a stranger in the room. I had been thinking about Christ as the man of sorrows.
3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
I decided to do a portrait. It was exciting to do and very emotional in its impact. This simple process has served me well.
Strangers in the Room
The man of sorrows
I wanted to do a self portrait because artists do that when they need a model. I thought it would be interesting to embed myself in a lithograph. I produced a solid black and then scratched white lines to form my portrait. It has a strange feeling but I liked it and I thought it was a good likeness
Self Portrait as a Lithographer
Self portrait as a Lithographer