BAC Self-Portrait Anthology Event

On November 21, Buckham Arts Collective Literary Collaborators will present “Self-Portrait” publication release event with reading and reception with the authors at 2 PM.

Buckham Arts Collective Literary Collaborators who contributed to this anthology: Nadia Alamah, Bob Campbell, Connor Coyne, Nic Custer, Vivian Kao, Tim Lane, Jenifer Fernandes Veloso, and Jan Worth.

This Buckham Artist Collaborators anthology, Self-Portrait, is the next addition to that evolving annual tradition. From the introduction by Vivian Koa:

“What does it mean to write a self-portrait?

Portraiture is a visual art, not a verbal one. The closest analog the verbal arts have to the portrait would seem to be the biography. The self-portrait, then, would be something like autobiography.

But that comparison doesn’t seem quite right. The self-portrait is a single image, not a long jumble of words. Autobiography is an explanation: an accounting for oneself, a presentation of a life in key moments, all of one’s accomplishments documented for posterity. But a portrait is not an explanation; it is a declaration—an announcement of the self that, in a single unified moment, renders visible the artist’s entire being, body and soul. Sure, the accomplishments might be there, but so are the shadows of failure and disappointment that linger in the dark corners and the outer margins. The self-portrait is not a documentation of a life, but a distillation. There is a nakedness, a vulnerability and a baring forth, a glimpse into the soul that cannot be captured in a chronological account or backward-looking narrative.

And yet, a self-portrait is still a representation—an interpretation—a version of the self that both reveals and hides the truth. As the poet John Ashbery writes in his own self-portrait in words, “the portrait / Is the reflection once removed.” Eventually, the artist realizes that the person they’ve painted isn’t themselves at all, but an Other who somehow knows their dreams and lives with their memories.

In the ten pieces collected in this anthology, the writers of the Buckham Arts Collective take on this challenge of finding the words that both hide and reveal the truth of the self..”

Buckham is grateful for all the individuals and organizations who support Buckham Fine Arts Project and Gallery, including Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Community Foundation of Greater Flint, Michigan Arts and Culture Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Greater Flint Arts Council Share Art Genesee Grant program made possible by the Genesee County Arts Education and Cultural Enrichment Millage Funds. We couldn’t do it without you!

It is with delight that Buckham Fine Arts Project shares this third publication, Self-Portrait, by the Literary Artist Collaborators.