Acknowledgement
I would like to thank Carolee Jakes for having this interview with me, and to thank you, the reader. I would like to wish anyone struggling with their own identity the strength to keep exploring.
Introducing Self Portrait and Identity
When I imagine how I want to represent myself, I am always wearing a poet shirt. It is one of those baggy white shirts that poets or bards would wear, with ruffles and big puffy sleeves. When I left my home campus to move to Washington D.C., I wrote my best friend a letter saying that she was the sun on your skin in summer and the laughter of children. When Carolee Jakes made her artwork Self Portrait, she let the rushing water, craggy rocks on the shore, and the spirals of the sky be the focus of the image rather than the person standing in the portrait–who actually has their back to us, the viewers.
How do we define who we are? In Carolee Jakes’ Self Portrait, she defines her identity through the beauty and mystery of the world around her— not by any physical ideals. Because of that, I was taken by this woodblock immediately. I felt the connection between my own presentation and Jakes’. These abstract or personal concepts— the world, the clothes we wear, or how other people make us feel— to me, are just as defining as the color of our hair. I had the wonderful opportunity to ask Jakes some questions about Self Portrait with this theme of identity in mind.
Image Description: Carolee Jakes’ Self Portrait woodblock print.
Starting Off Light
To ease into the interview process, my first question was about what kind of music, if any, Jakes listens to while creating.
Her response: “I almost always listen to music while I’m working, ranging from ragas to Bach cello suites to Queen.”
Another one of my lighter questions, before getting into the theme of identity, was asking about the small house in the background of the piece.
Her response: “The house in the background is a tiny Parthenon. A nod to place.”
Both of these responses delighted me— as a classical history nerd with a love for Queen. I was excited to dive deeper into the painting and the theme of identity.
Style and Composition
I went into talking about art style next. Jakes has a captivating style that is hypnotic in nature. It remains consistent across different mediums, as well. In Self Portrait, the sky is full of spiraling winds. The water is rushing and full of life. The lines that shade the rocks make them immediately eye-catching. The world she crafted in her style seemed to be more of a representation of herself than the person in the portrait. My question, then, was two components: “Why did you choose to compose this piece with more of a focus on the world, rather than the individual?” and “Do you feel like your art style is a part of your identity as an artist and a person?”
Her response:
“I have always felt that for a portrait to be successful, it must contain more than a physical likeness. For my own self-portraits, the external indicators of who I am are more important than my face. I felt like a still point in a vast plane of movement. A speck on a huge timeline, knowing that even as I worked, time was passing and the timeline was stretching beyond me into the future. The solidity of the rocks was an anchor for the movement of the sea and sky, but even the rocks show the effects of time in their lines. I wanted the figure to merge into the lines of the world around it.”
“Swirls, spirals and circles are universal indicators of motion and time. Think Van Gogh’s starry night. They are also present in symbols of cultures around the globe. I see them every time I walk into the woods: in the water, along the creek bed, inside broken tree stumps, in lines carved by insects on the trunks of fallen trees. And they feel natural to my hand when I carve, draw, or paint them.”
This resonated with me as well. I think about the feelings, objects, and other external indicators that I associate with the people around me— some that I mentioned above. I found this to be a deep response that showed a lot about Jakes and her own introspection.
Identity
We then dove into our concepts of identity. I shared with Jakes the conceptions that I have of myself—billowing poet shirts, of course. When I related this idea of my identity to her, this led into what I was most excited to hear: “What is identity to you?” Her response was poetic as she listed off the components of identity:
“The physical reality of who we are, our genetic make up and our familial history.
Where we were born, raised,
Where we have traveled,
Who we have known,
Where we chose to go when we have a choice,
What we chose to do,
Whom we chose to spend time with,
Share experiences with,
What we look at and how we see it.”
Reading this response allowed me to see how my own conception of identity related to Carolee Jakes’, especially in the context of this piece. Her ideas about identity and what it personally means to her are well-reflected in Self Portrait. “What we look at and how we see it” especially rings true as a theme of this piece, and as Jakes’ identity and connection to the world.
A final, introspective question
Self Portrait left me with a lot of feelings, questions, and insight. I wondered about Carolee Jakes and why she chose to do things the way she did— leading, of course, to this interview. Inspired by those feelings, my final question to Jakes was what she thought people took away from Self Portrait. I didn’t know what to expect as a response to this question, but Jakes answered with grace and thoughtfulness.
Her response: “Concerning viewers, I can’t say what they take away from seeing this work, or any of my work. Everything we experience, we experience through the filter of who we are and what we’ve been through. But if people find a way to view the world, others, or themselves a little more thoughtfully, and perhaps with more compassion, then I’m satisfied.”
I admire this response a lot. May we all take a moment to reflect every so often, and find ways to be more thoughtful and compassionate.
And, to sign off—a photo of me in my poet shirt.
Karen King
Staff contributor Karen King.