Individuation: A Portrait

This is the long(er) riff on the Individuation project. If you want to jump to the shorter version on what you’ll read here visit individuation.art

Seth Godin said it best in his book Linchpin: Art is a personal gift that changes the recipient.

I cannot think of a better way to describe this new series of portraits which are not limited edition art pieces but are commissioned portraits, meaning anyone can hire me to do this for them or their family. They can also be gifted for someone special during a time of transition (all of this will make sense in a minute).

They are a poetic act that symbolize a rite of passage, marking the crossing of the threshold from one period of our life to a new one.

Carl Jung called it individuation: when we assert ourselves as individuals separating from the collective thought to find our unique self.

American psychoanalyst Erik Erikson called individuation the lifelong process of navigating the dialectic between disconnection and connection, beginning with the disconnection from our parents to connect to our true indentity, which allows to reconnect to them again from a different, more mature, place.

In these portraits I place the sitter in front of a minimalist white background and take the portrait using medium format black and white film. The style is reminiscent of Richard Alvedon’s The American West portrait series. The sitter is holding her parent's hands though you cannot see the parents, only their hands. This is, after all, conceptual art, not a literal family portrait.

The sitter asserts herself as an individual and isolating her with the white background is a visual metaphor of her separation from the collective thought. At the same time, by holding her parents hands she is recognizing she is the culmination of her mother and father’s long line of spiritual and genetic bloodlines. However she is more than just that, she is a unique expression of the universe.

This art piece has become a rite of passage for children coming of age. In fact, we have created ceremonies that include core elements of rites of passage from around the world that mark the crossing of the threshold between one stage of life and another.

The portrait has significant emotional value the moment it is done. Now think of the value it will have when her parents are no longer alive and the art piece becomes a reminder that with all their humanity, her parents were always by her side.

Surprisingly, I’ve had a few people in their forties who have asked me to do this portrait with them and their aging parents as they want to have it done before they get sick or pass away.

I committed to work with 20 families this year for this portraits and so far about half of those have been done or spoken for. I will happily work with you or someone you know if there is still availability.