Self-portraits of an Expectant Father
These self-portraits were drawn in 1977 during the period of waiting and uncertainty before the birth of my first child : the first generation of the Soler family to be born in Australia.
The expectant father senses the stirrings of a letting-go, a distancing from the generations which came before him such a world away. In his rare moments of solitude he queries a past eclipsed by his anxiety about an unknown future and a confrontation with his uprooted “ self ”.
On the fragile paper the self-portraits absorb his anxiety. Insistent abrasion and scratching disrupt the nocturnal silence. In impulsive stabs the pen tattoos the virgin surface, flooding and blotting its fluid like blood over skin ... inquiring, questioning, demanding ... drawing forth what will be.
After more than thirty years these self-portraits retain for me their vitality in the rhythm of my life.
The expectant father senses the stirrings of a letting-go, a distancing from the generations which came before him such a world away. In his rare moments of solitude he queries a past eclipsed by his anxiety about an unknown future and a confrontation with his uprooted “ self ”.
On the fragile paper the self-portraits absorb his anxiety. Insistent abrasion and scratching disrupt the nocturnal silence. In impulsive stabs the pen tattoos the virgin surface, flooding and blotting its fluid like blood over skin ... inquiring, questioning, demanding ... drawing forth what will be.
After more than thirty years these self-portraits retain for me their vitality in the rhythm of my life.