Narcissistic much?

I need to submit a photo to classmates.com and to my employee intranet, so last night I staged a photo shoot and took like 300 photos of myself—much, I’m sure, to the amusement of my neighbors, who now surely think I’m the walking embodiment of narcissism.

I ended up deleting most of the photos because I disliked one aspect or another. In photographs I have an unfortunate tendency to either A) look like I’ve got a gigantic goiter, or B) look unbearably smug (a coworker of mine, on the other hand, looks like a junkie in every photo; she has complained that she can’t even send out photo cards at Christmas because she always ends up looking like a heroin addict propped up in front of a Christmas tree). My driver’s license and National Library of Medicine library card embody both the goiter and smugness traits, whereas my passport photo skips both and instead makes me look like I’m missing teeth. And have tangerine skin. Well, my perseverance finally paid off last night—I managed to snag a slender handful of shots where I look semi-human (I’d look more human if I Photoshopped my malformed forehead, but I just can’t be bothered). I know that being so persnickety about this photo makes me look incredibly vain, but I’m not! Take one look at me on any given day you’ll see what I mean. I’m quite comfortable looking slovenly, thank you very much.

Meanwhile, In discussing one his favorite paintings, Shawn inspired me to think about some of my own favorite works of art. I’ve been lucky enough to hit some amazing museums and galleries in my life, and so I’ve seen more wonderful art than I can even recall. But here are some favorites that stood out over the years.

The Death of Marat - Louis David

I saw this on a postcard in the Louvre giftshop and fell in love. I now have a framed poster version hanging in my apartment and the original postcard is in my cubicle at work. The postcard version has two extra brilliant lines of writing engraved on the wooden box: N’ayant pu me corrompre ils m’ont assassiné (Not having been able to corrupt me they have assassinated me). Later I got this engraved on a cheapo necklace at HersheyPark.

Death of Marat 1 - Edvard Munch

I have a small version of this in my apartment, clipped from an old JAMA cover. I’d love to score a larger version.

The Giants, the Witches, and the Daughter of the Sun - Rudolf Koivu

This was a stamp on a letter I received from a Finnish penpal in 1990. It remains in a small frame in my living room, and until 2005 I never knew the artist’s name. At that point I was in Helsinki and ended up in the Finnish Postal Museum on a whim, and while there, I suddenly thought, “Hey, maybe I can track down that stamp, using 1990 as a starting point!” It worked!

Valium - Damien Hirst

My favorite piece from this Goldsmiths alum (I’m mentioning his alma mater because that’s where I studied in London). Celtic knot-like patterns appear when you move away from the painting.

The Wounded Angel - Hugo Simberg

I plan to buy a copy of this beautiful painting when I move.

Ophelia - John Everett Millais

This is hanging in my bedroom, but it needs a better frame!

Concentric Circles - Wassily Kandinsky

I know: such a cliché. I really like a lot of Kandinsky’s work, but this is the one that reels me in the most.

Last but not least is Marc Chagall. Love him. I can’t even begin to describe how much I love the man. Mmmm, let’s see. I’ve had a few Chagall calendars over the years, I use a Chagall mug at work, I bought a Chagall matryoshka in Russia, I have several of his prints hanging in my apartment and cubicle, I own a Chagall nightlight, in Chicago I bought a piece of stained glass showing one of his paintings (but my idiot landlord [and I know I shouldn’t say that, because he’s now dead] later broke it), and I have Chagall coasters on my coffee table. Plus I have two books about him. Oh yeah, and I named my cat Freyja Bella—the middle name being a nod to Chagall’s first wife. Love him. Among my favorite paintings are:

The Promenade

The Birthday

Pink Lovers

Au Dessus de la Ville

Chryssoie

Lovers in the Red Sky

Les Fiancées de la Tour Eiffel

Couple in the Window

Le Couple

Lovers and Flowers

La Mariée

Couple on a Red Background

Le Champ de Mars

Clearly there’s a theme going on: my favorite Chagall paintings are consistently the ones showing a luminously happy couple (usually Chagall and Bella) clasping each other in ecstasy. See? Proof that I’m not completely dead inside.

song heard most recently before posting:
Darts of Pleasure—Franz Ferdinand