
“Exhale” – Denese Sanders
Face It: Artists’ Portraits at The Cherry
Curator’s Statement:
When Robert Reese asked me to organize a show, I started thinking about portraits in the age of selfies and cell phones. Now, more than ever, we can easily change the way we look on the outside, but the habits and tiny acts that define the rest of ourselves don’t change so readily. Portraits have always addressed both aspects of the sitters–sometimes glamorizing, or correcting a physical flaw, and sometimes making the sitter grander, more heroic, or more stylish. Other portraits try to show the sitter as they are, while capturing some aspect of their personality. We look at self-portraits, especially, for hints at the artist’s personality. Rembrandt and Velasquez came to my mind immediately, and a photograph you might remember by Imogen Cunningham, showing an unmade bed and some hairpins. I’ve always admired that image–a self-portrait that doesn’t show the physical being of the artist.
The focus of this show is obvious: portraits by artists–self-portraits, portraits of someone important to them, a spirit animal–whatever matters to them. The 20 plus artists represented work in a number of different styles and media, from abstraction to realism, painting, photography, printmaking and mixed media. The participating artists are: Aki Ouye, Karen Nagano, Rick Deragon, Denese Sanders, Meg Biddle, Marcia Perry, Huntington Witherill, Martha Casanave, Jose Ortiz, Kimm Barnes, Paul Richmond, Noro Partido, Will Bullas, Robin Winfield, Andrea Johnson, Jan Wagstaff, Jerry Takigawa, Pamela Takigawa, Karen Warwick, Don Hughes, Mary Hill, Pamela Carroll, and Ellen Gust. Some offer straight self-portraits; others do not. A short statement by each artist will tell you something about what they were thinking when they made the image.
An outdoor closing reception, free and open to all, is scheduled for Saturday, February 19, in the Cherry Center courtyard. We hope you’ll join us. —Martha Manson

Mixed media
(Epson color print & acrylic paint on canvas)
27” x 17” - 2021
"My work has always been about the beauty and diversity of architecture and lately I've been intrigued with reflections, but after being challenged to push my comfort zone and participate in a show of self-portraits I am actually excited about including figurative elements in the future."

Pigment print - 24.5” x 18.75” x 1.25” - 2020
"A portrait of myself at age 5 is layered with the artifacts of a traumatic history experienced by my parents but held in silence to protect me. What is not transformed (processed) is transmitted as intergenerational trauma."

Oil on canvas - 18" x 24" - 2021
"I don't always know what a painting means when I begin working. My initial goal was to show a different side of myself than the bubbly, exuberant personality that my friends are accustomed to. After capturing my likeness, I found myself veering more toward abstraction in the surrounding space. The shapes that formed around the back of my head became swirling representations of the many-layered thoughts - grief, joy, doubt, fear, hope, sorrow, love - that got amplified during the quiet times of isolation during this past year. As it evolved, this painting came to be about the importance of making peace with the present moment."

Oil - 14" x 11" - 2014
Courtesy of Winfield Family Collection
"This self portrait was painted looking at a mirror. I tried to be as truthful and observant as possible, capturing my face straight on."

Oil on canvas - 36" x 48" - 2014
"This painting is about living with voices-––calls of regret, cries of truth dreams, reminders of forgotten plans, and the whispers of a higher calling."

Ink, acrylic & colored pencil on found paper
17” x 32” Triptych = 2021
"Covid’s doldrums got me thinking about self-portraits and I’m delighted to find my nature is as cryptic as any topic I’ve attempted to explore and illustrate."

Digital painting printed on metal
24” x 30” - December, 2021
"In the time of Covid I picked up my digital brush and went to work. In due course, odd creatures and temperamental children traveled across my computer screen. They said, 'We have stories to tell.' So I listened. And now there are books to sell!"

Mixed water media - 20” x 20” - 2021
“It’s said that you can “read” a person by looking at his/her face. But are you seeing the real person or are you seeing what the person wants you to see? And which person are you seeing? We have many sides and levels. We are complex.”

Oil on canvas - 36” x 24" - November, 2021
“I was in New Mexico when I received the invitation to do a self-portrait. I thought of my image as it related to that environment during that season. There were many leaves falling and long shadows all around. My portraits are what I paint, not how I perceive myself so it was a challenge at first. I finally resorted to doing the image, using a mirror, as I had taught kids to do in high school for many years.”

15.5" x 16" - Watercolor - 2021
“In my career I have painted many self portraits. I think we artists are obliged to do so. Each one has become more playful. I have never lost the childhood urge to play ‘dress-up’. Even King Lear had his ‘fool’.”

Archival Pigment Ink Print
Signed and numbered limited edition
22" x 28" - 1979
"In the spring of 1979, Steve conducted a travel and photography workshop in Baja, Mexico that had been scheduled to initially begin in the remote village of San Quintin, some 270 miles south of the Mexican-American borderline. My second (and forever!) wife, Tracy and I – along with Steve – were the first to arrive at the designated point of departure (by several hours) and Steve was quite concerned that other members of the workshop would pass us by, without notice, thereby becoming lost and delaying the start of the workshop, itself. So, after rummaging through the back of his van for what seemed a considerable amount of time, he produced a roll of electrical tape and began to emblazon the side of the vehicle with his name, and a camera graphic, so that the soon to be arriving participants would be sure to notice... and stop! Upon completing the job we all agreed that his handiwork should be forever memorialized. The resulting portrait was originally captured using Ilford FP4 120 roll film, a Pentax 6x7 camera, and 55mm Takumar lens."

Oil on panel - 25" x 22" - 2021
"The domain of Artemis, as a goddess of the forests, beasts and moon, is that of Nature. In this counterpoint to "Song of Apollo", Artemis, as a personal spirit goddess, ponders the conditions of life on earth."

Monoprint - 12 ½” x 15 ½”
"Bird girl is my avatar. She is a portrait of the person I aspire to be. Owl is the shield for my heart, protecting me behind her wings. With soft feathers she creates refuge, a place of kindness and peace in my heart and the world."
Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. Psalm 34:14

Acrylic on wrapped canvas - 24” x 24”-12/21
”True story. In a moment of insecurity, I reached out to a lifetime of familiars & muses. And this happened.“

Archival digital print
in an edition of six on 17” x 22” paper,
enlarged from a unique Van Dyke brown print.
(Van Dyke brown printing is a late 19th century UV contact printing process.)
"Photographic portraiture has been my life's work. As I got older and had less contact with people, I began photographing my most frequent visitors, an extended crow family. Then, when the pandemic struck, the birds became, for the most part, my only visitors.
At first I didn't consider these images portraits. But as I photographed, collected and edited, I realized that I approached them the same way that I do people when making a portrait. I wait, observe body language, and look for expressive," momentary gestures. (Birds have a lot more of those than humans.) There is always nonverbal communication going on, especially in groupings—positioning, distancing, expression, gaze direction, gesture. Humans and birds aren't all that different. For me, an interesting portrait prompts a viewer to question or become engaged in what might be going on. The accompanying family portrait of humans illustrates the common approach I take to both people and birds.

Mixed mediums on paper
66" x 42" (no frame) - 2021
a fall, a break, a bump
a mind knocked loose
a wrist in pieces
self through the looking glass

8" x 10" - pastel
"Blurred Between The Lines is more about mood than a realistic portrait. The mark making reflects the tension and uncertainty we have all been feeling these past two years."

Pastel on linen/silk board -17" x 30" - 2021
"This is a self-portrait of me as a child through middle age into my elder stage. My ultimate goal in life is to be a happy old woman, which involves a lot of art making, mentoring and loving. So far, so good!"

Acrylic on board - 12” x 16” - 2012
Courtesy the Winfield Gallery
"I have only painted two self-portraits in my life. One an assignment in art school, and second to participate in the Carmel Art Association self -portrait show. It is not something I am inclined to do so in order to make it interesting and challenging for me I decided to see if I could paint like my husband Chris Winfield. The background is one of Chris’s compositions and I think it fits well especially the faint purple halo around my head. But I’m definitely no angel."

Drawing created by Mary Underwood (Hill)
26” x 22” - 1957
"This is one of my first portraits created when I was eleven years old. ‘Tis a portrait of my best friend’s Ragged Ann, which I coveted... but was able to capture in this drawing. Sixty years later, after photography being my art form, I started drawing again."

(Pepe and his Soul Companion)
Oil on canvas -36" x 48” - 2021
"I met him sixteen years ago. He was a quiet boy with dark, playful eyes, a bit cheeky and had curly hair. Pepe, his younger brother Jaime, and other classmates would attend the Hijos del Sol painters' workshop. When the workshop closed, I sometimes gave them a ride to their house. They lived with their parents in a two-story house; they rented the first. When leaving them at the entrance of a corridor that led to their house, the two boys would race towards the door of their home. Jaime, his brother, always wanted to win the race at all costs. Pepe found the antics of his brother to be amusing. Today Pepe continues to live in the same room as a single man. He is a great draftsman, painter, fabricator, admired teacher, playful, and a marvelous person. Pepe achieved his Associates Degree and plans to attain his Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts. In my journey, I have walked along fantastic characters, Pepe is one of them. What is important for me is that in life, I was able to see him and then, painted him."
"Le conocí dieciséis años atrás. Era un chico callado con ojos oscuros y juguetones, un poco cachetón y de cabello rizado. Al salir de su escuela, él, su hermano menor, y otros compañeros de la escuela, acudían al taller de pintores Hijos del Sol. Al cerrar el taller, en ocasiones les daba raite a su casa. Vivian con sus padres en una casa de dos pisos, ellos rentaban el primero. Al dejarlos en la entrada de un corridor que dirigía a su casa, los dos prendían una carrera hacia la puerta de su hogar. Jaime, su hermano, siempre quería ganar la carrera a todo costo. Las travesuras de su hermano, le causaban gracia a Pepe. Hoy en día Pepe sigue viviendo en la misma habitación como soltero. Es un gran dibujante, pintor, fabricador, admirado maestro, juguetón, y maravilloso como persona. Pepe acaba de obtener su Asociado y tiene planes de conseguir su bachillerato en Artes Finas. En mi jornada he caminado con fantásticos personajes, Pepe es uno de ellos. Lo importante para mí es que en vida, logre verle, y le pinte."