Appropriation of Norman Rockwell's Triple selling Self-Portrait

*Artwork shown in environment (with plants, desk, etc.) is not actual size.

Appropriation of Norman Rockwell's Triple Self- Portrait

A fine art reproduction of an original 30x40 oil painting on canvas. This reproduction is professionally printed on fine art watercolor paper. Why did I choose this type of paper? Watercolor paper is usually thick and the medium texture of this particular paper adds a nice touch to closer reflect the qualities of the original. Each reproduction will be signed, dated (according to month and year it was printed), and titled. This is an open edition reproduction. I would recommend getting this custom framed but if you're trying to save money, you can easily buy a mat and frame from your local frame store (I usually go to Michael's and use their on-going coupons). I would HIGHLY recommend bringing the reproduction with you when shopping, that way you won't be disappointed when you get home and realize, "hey that's not the right size!"

- Paper Size: 11"x 14" Image Size: 9”x12”
- Fine art watercolor paper
- Signed, Dated (according to print date), and Titled

What inspired the original artwork?

This oil painting was originally an assignment for a clothed figure painting class. The assignment was to create an “appropriation” of another artist's painting. In case you don't know what an appropriation is in art it's basically when an artist uses the concept, composition, or style of another artist's work and re does it in their own way. During the semester of this class, I felt like I wasn't reaching the level of where I deserved to be. I remember sitting with my friend on a break from class and telling him “Dude, I don't feel like I have anything. There's nothing special about my work.” He told me, “yeah there is, look at the last painting you did, you got that little swirly thing going on in the background.” In my selling mind, that little swirly thing in that painting seemed like an afterthought that wouldn't even come close to setting me apart from any other artist. I would see my classmates work and it was discouraging in a way because they all had something special or some crazy good ability to PAINT. And my work looked as if I had never touched a paint brush. So I decided for the final assignment that I didn't want to go down without a fight. I mustered up whatever ideas no matter how ambitious and I went for it. “I'll show them,” I said to myself, shaking my fist like a villain out for revenge. Before I started taking art classes, I never had formal training or even any artists that I liked, I just saw art as either cool or not cool. But for this final assignment, I was forced to look up paintings that I would eventually have to recreate. This is when I fell deeply in love with Norman Rockwell's work. After seeing his Triple Self-Portrait painting, I knew that this would be my time to say “Hey! I can do that too!” The instructor gave us the opportunity to get started early so I took advantage of that and took MANY pictures and dressed up in plenty of different outfits to get everything right. Long story short, I came to the final day of class with the largest work of art on canvas that I'd ever done (30x40, although now it seems tiny compared to the sizes I work with). Exhausted from all nighter's and energy drinks (terrible choices), I came stumbling into the classroom with my painting and closed my eyes on the couch waiting for class to start. We ended up having a competition and I got second place to an artist that I highly admire to this day. I remember saying to the class that I was tired of not being able to do as good as them and that I wanted to do something big; that was a profound moment for me as I considered myself an underdog (and I still do) but the cool thing is is that I love underdogs and the potential they have to do great things. So I naturally cheered myself on saying “Watch this underdog do something cool.” And that's how this piece came to be. The end.