Selfie Mashup

Our first discussion started with exploring the idea of what it means to "steal like an artist."  We steal the best parts of what we see, what we experience; what a more poetic type might refer to as building upon the shoulders of those who came before us, what a more analytic type might refer to as the iterative process.

We also talked about Austin Kleon's idea that we are a mashup of our parents.  A good portion of our character, abilities, and aptitude is genetically determined by who our parents are.  

For the theme of self-portrait, I decided to create a selfie using a mashup of these two notions -- a combination of the notion of building upon what came before - and the idea that our basic being is programmed by a certain genetic mashup. 

This selfie is composed of four shots of me, at ages 4, 14, 25, and 34.

What or who I am now consists of all the parts of my previous self that I either consciously, or unconsciously, chose to retain.  My whole is the sum of those parts that I chose to steal, the elements that I take forward.