Calling all Self-Portrait Artists

John Singer Sargent once lamented that, “Every time I paint a portrait, I lose a friend.” If true, then the prolific American portrait artist sacrificed hundreds, if not thousands, of chums.

Here at the College, amateur portrait artists don’t have to worry about such losses. The only people Cougar artists have to fear angering, in fact, are themselves. That’s because Cougars and other Charleston residents are participating in a massive self-portraiture project organized by graduate student Nancy Cooper. Throughout the rest of the spring semester, Cooper will be hosting a handful of pop-up self-portrait-making events across the Holy City as part of the Charleston Self-Portrait Project.

“Many of us lack the opportunity or encouragement to explore and express who we are through art,” says Cooper, a public administration and arts management graduate student. “This project provides a judgment-free opportunity for all Charlestonians to illustrate how they see themselves, both as individuals and as representatives of the Charleston community, through the creation of self-portraits.”

Those willing to roll up their sleeves and pick up a pencil or pastel are invited to the College’s World Cultures Fair on Thursday, March 26, 2015, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Stern Student Center Garden, located just south of the intersection of Coming and George streets. Once you draw your own self- portrait, you may keep your masterpiece for posterity or donate the art to the Charleston Self-Portrait Project. And, in a worst case scenario, Cooper says, ‘If you hate it, you can throw it away.”