SELF-PORTRAIT

Nov 1995

With the birth of my daughter and the sudden death of my roommate of three years, my thoughts were understandably focused on life and death.

The hands on my head suggest a doctor’s hands pulling a baby into this world—or the hands of those who have gone before us pulling us into the next.

To show the passing of time, each hand represents a different season -- one of leaves (fall), one of stone (winter), one of the ocean (summer) and one of grass (spring). 

The water pouring from the arm is a reference to suicidal thoughts. The comet entering my eye was the speed at which things seemed to be changing. The light in my eye is the first light a baby sees coming from the womb—or the light at the end of the tunnel often described in near-death experiences.

My parents were going through a divorce at the time, and so the constellation on the top left is of a home. The thought being that from afar, my family had seemed intact, but in reality we were miles apart.

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© Jesse Michael Newman, 2021