Janet CollinsAre you an Exhibitionist?
March 9th 2009 10:07
Matt Held's completed portrait of Steve
When New York artist Matt Held set up a new site on Facebook and asked for some friends, he had an ulterior motive. He wanted to paint them. Little did he realise at the time how friendship on that basis would be so popular.
Held’s project and Facebook group “I’ll have my Facebook portrait painted by Matt Held” was set up in November and with more than 2,200 members already competition for Held’s portraiture is becoming fierce.
The whole idea came to Held he says after he decided to paint a portrait of his wife’s Facebook profile picture and he then realised Facebook was a great source for a collection of portrait paintings. By “a collection” he was thinking along the lines of 200 portraits even though he doubted whether he would get anywhere near that amount of takers. His first estimation was something like 40. To his surprise the group just keeps growing.
To join the group all that anyone needs to do is go to his group site and add Matt as their friend. That way Matt can view their profile picture and decide on the suitability of the picture to be used as a portrait in the collection.
The idea behind the project goes deeper than just interesting portraits. Do people make conscious or subconscious decisions when they choose a photo to best represent themselves? This is what Held would like to answer with the project believing that “choosing a certain photo to post is a form of control and self-preservation”.
It may be appealing to our vanity but Held is also interested in how these people come into connection with him to be memorialized in a portrait painting much like the rich and powerful used to.
So if you like the idea of having your portrait painted and then being part of an exhibition go to the following site and check it out. Make sure first of course that you are a Facebooker.
Really Long Link
You can get even more information from Matt Held's own blog at:
Really Long Link
Sourced:
www.nbcnewyork.com
[I'll have my Facebook portrait painted by Matt Held on Facebook
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Comment by Morgan Bell
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Comment by Janet Collins
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If you go to his own personal site you will see some of the great portraits he does. The pic in the post is just one of them.
If you are game, have a go.
Comment by Morgan Bell
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its combining two of my great loves, original art projects and the psychology of facebook display pics . . . he is a great find, thanks for pointing him out!
Comment by Janet Collins
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This little find gave me the idea for my post. I thought you might like it. I am sure many others will like the idea too.
Take care.
Janet
Comment by Janet Collins
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I can tell you are really excited about it.
Comment by Postmodern Critic
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Comment by Janet Collins
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I was only trying to get attention.
Thanks for the visit.