Self Portrait 10 A; The Providential Eye

I was initially going to discard this image – in fact I had already started work on another version of the same photo (see my next picture) but I decided to keep it anyway. Although I had intended to do just ten in this series it has been included mainly for comparison – it will throw my numbers out. It was interesting afterwards to see two quite different emotions emerging from the same photo.

This picture contains three photographs facing left, centre, and right respectively however the third looking to the right predominates. The face is framed by a chest X-ray with a mitral and aortic valve transplant though little detail is visible. The subject glances out of the picture towards the right with a look of defiant apprehension. I liked the interplay of colours in the patchwork on the left side of the picture and the texture of the textiles in the lower half. The tension between the hard geometric figures on the left and the amorphous patterns on the right adds a further dimension.

Interpreting it literally the picture suggests there are two sides to this person, the old and crusty side, and the shadowy side. Does this really reflect the character of the subject? I’m in no position to say…

On looking at the image later I noted that it contains, in the centre, the symbol of the Eye of Providence; the eye and triangle or pyramid. This ancient Christian symbol was appropriated in 1782 to appear both on the Great Seal of the United States and on the US dollar bill. It was later taken up by the Freemasons to represent the Great Architect of the Universe i.e. God (there are many conspiracy theories regarding the link between freemasons and the Great Seal).

Finally, I notice that the picture has a cubist element, again this was unintentional.