Artists & Selfies

Albrecht Dürer painted his portrait holding a thistle In the 15th century, thistles were signs of fidelity. It was also an aphrodisiac Vincent Van Gogh painted his portrait with a bandaged ear Putting his mental anguish out on display Rembrandt painted himself as the Prodigal Son in the Brothel Portraying his wife as a whore, but a merry one Andy Warhol painted his selfie with spikey hair As a pop art celebrity, a head in an empty background Picasso painted himself contemplating death. Fragmented into abstract splits and splinters Francis Bacon showed his sorrow in paint After his lover had just committed suicide The face bends and distorts in painterly grief Munch painted almost 100 selfies In The Night Wanderer, he has no eyes, one hand John Patrick Byrne depicted himself in a flowered jacket It is Monty Pythenesque. A hippyish CD cover What phone camera can come even close To a face in paint or clay Catching the inner workings of the self?