Ancient Art and Ritual and Self Portraits - Stevie Hardwich

     In Ancient Art and Ritual, Harrison bring up the point that art comes from feeling. She believes that art comes from life, and no art school can teach an artist what life can. She says that most young artist are going through a phase of sorts, saying "they write lyric poems, they love masquerading, they focus life on to themselves in a way which, later on, life itself makes impossible. This pseudo-art, this self-aggrandizement usually dies a natural death before the age of thirty." I disagree with her on this point. I believe the young can make art based on subjects besides themselves, and I also believe that art that centers yourself is still art. A self portrait or a biography are still art. Van Gogh's self portraits are beautiful pieces of art. If anything, I think art based off of yourself can give it more intensity. You can show others how you see yourself, how you feel. Sometimes a self portrait can truly expose who you are, and share the emotions you feel.

    A self portrait isn't the same as a selfie. Selfies do not require nearly as much planning and time as a self portrait. A selfie can be artistic, but it is a different medium from traditional art. Another reason self portraits are important is that they ground the artist in history. They can be used later to document what people looked like in that time period. 

    Furthermore, if self-portraits were just a self-adsorbed way to use your skills, what makes it not art? It carries emotion and thought, how much do the moral intentions matter? Does an artist have to be a saint for their art to be real art?