Self Portrait Tuesday II: All of Me

Here is my second installment for Self Portrait Tuesday. I'm doing a series of this piece in which I used charcoal,pastels,graphite, and photo shop. The theme is "All of Me" so I'm focusing on my recovery from addiction. Addiction in all its ugly aspects. Actually, my last SPT submission showed my blatant addiction to icecream. This one has a little more depth....so far. It's called "Introspection I". It, obviously, involves me looking inward. It's pretty interesting cuz I've done self-portraits most of my adult life and I actually had a shrink analyze some of them. I must admit he was right on the money. I should dig some of them up to scan'em. They're pretty sad, but u can see how I start to get better as I progress on my journey to recovery/sobriety.
SO- on that note this introspective series will look back on the pain and joy (but MOSTLY pain) that came with attaining what seemed to be elusive: sobriety. This has definitely taken up what seems to be "all of my life" to one degree or another.Now, I'm excited about diggin up some of that past work- its been a while since I've seen it!!! Best to get it on disc anyway!
At this point in my sobriety I've been having a lot of sense-triggered memories that hit me at all different times and definitely too often- whether it be a smell of a laundry detergent or a certain song or a picture of someone or even a physical touch. And the memories are very strong and vivid. My pain doctor who is acting as my shrink until I get another one told me that memories that are triggered by smell are the strongest and most common. Pretty cool,huh?? I must admit that this whole remembering stuff isn't necessarily a pleasant experience so expressing and documenting it through art will help me deal with it. I'm sure the doctor will approve.:)
Has anyone had a problem with blogger distorting color? It happened with my last spt submission and with one of these photo's. What is supposed to be a dark blackish color turned out to be this super neon purple....That's why I shrunk the first picture here...hee hee ha ha ho ho...