Self Portraits - Western Style

[Debra Jones]

Summer is so frighteningly hot and dead I started my seasonal panic early. I had a picture win a prize in a local show and while it is hanging on a wall, I figured to try to send people over to look and push to exploit the idea.

I give all credit (if it is a good idea. If it is dumb, sorry....) to Cindy Procious for reminding me of the beauty of drawings on toned paper. Her pictures of the family on tea stained paper were wonderful. A picture I did in that technique won ANOTHER local award and I just wanted to push the idea.

Actually tea is hard for me. I don't have the patience to brew it BUT there is always a cup of strong, gritty coffee in my hand, and often down the front of my shirt, so I wanted to see what I could do.

The texture and romance of strong coffee around the campfire got me doing portraits of snapshots I had taken of our Pony Express re-creators looking dusty and trail weary. I thought maybe the old west characters would be more easily marketable as just pictures, not so much the problem with portraits as being too specific. Then I figured, it was all in the HAT. So I took a local model - me - and played a little movie in my head, that I was the old widow of the rancher, left to take care of the spread. Recently 60 and the owner of the most wonderful plein air hat, I threw on my denim and snapped a few ideas. These are the self portraits as samples of a style I think I might feature in my portfolio.