re-imagining the Self Portrait
Self Portraits are a time-honored artistic activity. It might be because the model is available and cheap.
I’ve done several—but most of them are with my back to the viewer—or from my much younger years—age 1 or 19.
During Covid, I had some time to think about trying something a bit different.
We are more than just our physical Prescence; we have likes and dislikes, things we do, common speech patterns and more.
I decided to present a self-portrait in a book format—one of my childhood ambitions was to read every book in our local library—I thought the librarian had the best job in the entire world.
I worked away at different aspects—name, birthday, favorite food/drink, hobbies, animals or pets, holidays.
I settled on a size large enough to be workable, yet not so large as to become cumbersome, selected some fabrics that I would work from–along with a common background quilt block.
Here are my panels before putting them together.
I stalled after completing them—how to put them together but I have a plan.
And if you are wondering, there will be a booklet available detailing my work and offering suggestions to make your own self portrait—that is not your face.
Sylvia Weir Art 
I made a journal quilt once that was this idea of a self-portrait that was not a portrait. I was prone to crankiness at the time (well, still am I guess) so did my best to come up with an applique motif of a crank handle like what one would see on a kitchen utensil. I even used some aluminum foil for the metal part of the handle. And I pieced my signature Idaho Beauty block as the background. Unfortunately, no one figured out what the item was let alone how it was a self-portrait. But I still like it. I think your expanded version is a great idea.