Self-Portrait in Odd’s Hat 2005

Rose Freymuth-Frazier made this self-portrait in oil with dark shades, save for the pops of pink and gold in the odd hat of the title. I can imagine Rose layering paint, maybe wiping it away, maybe building it up again, to arrive at this very human, very searching likeness. Self-portraiture can be a brutal process, a confrontation with our own image, or even who we think we are at a particular moment. I wonder if she was thinking of Rembrandt and other old masters when she made this, with its dark background, and the way the figure emerges from the shadows. That hat! It's like something from another time, with a touch of the theatrical. It makes you think about what is hidden and what is revealed in a portrait. Rose is in conversation with all the painters who came before her, trying to figure out how to see, how to feel, and how to translate that onto canvas.