FIGURINES #3: REJECTION       Ink on Paper, 19 x 19"

Rejection came to me as an impulsive, spur of the moment idea - while I was in the tub.  The antique shaving mirror with its retractable mounting struck me as a kind of movable visual world.  Like a movie screen, or a pull down map on the wall of a classroom, it could be summoned or “rejected” at will.  I particularly liked the ambiguity of the title.  Is it the figure’s rejection of his image? (turning away) Is it the figure’s choice to simply reject the idea of considering himself, particularly as he is naked? (the mirror as metaphor for the examined life or a kind of Don Quixote moment?)  Is he depressed, feeling rejected? (or dejected.)  I really liked the “ject” Latinate root.  Is it an ejector mirror?  I kind of imagined the extending frame as being like the cartoon boxing glove that can suddenly extend and hit someone in the nose.  Is the mirror an “extension” of something else? Interior projections?  I did not have any one of these specific interpretations mind; but I liked that the composition might call all of these ideas up, particularly since the water line (again, the negative space) suggested yet another plane we viewers are not allowed to see beneath.

 

Getting the shot was messy.  Water was splashing everywhere as I jumped up to push the auto timer and then quickly jumped back into the tub.  I also felt strange that I was again using myself as a subject; but I figured who else could I get to pose this way.  

 

DRAFT