plaster casts, 1992 – the present

In 1992, I cast my face in plaster, creating what is referred to as a life mask. There are two wonderful examples of life masks at the National Portrait gallery made of Lincoln at different periods during his lifetime. In the photograph above the cast you see in the foreground is the one made in 1992. It was my full intention to cast my face every year for the rest of my life. But the cast was misplaced and the idea along with it. When I moved my studio nearly two decades later I came across a box and inside was the plaster cast in perfect condition. I decided then to pick up where I had left off and in 2012 I made the second cast, seen in the background. Exactly twenty years had elapsed. Since 2012, I have made a cast every year. Of those, five to date have been cast in both bronze and beeswax. This process destroys the clean white surface and yellows it. It was for this reason that I decided to photograph the pristine white plasters before submitting them to this process.