This will be the self-portrait I will be painting. This self-portrait will reflect the art style of surrealism. The art style of surrealism illustrates some elements of basketball, as it is a game of deception. Surrealism often times portrays a dreamlike visual which is the point of a crossover in basketball. A crossover in basketball is suppose to trick the opposing defender into thinking you are going one way, but you are actually going another. My favourite crossover in basketball is named after "Allen Iverson", which I tried to imitate in this piece. In surrealism, artist often try to mess with the viewers mind, saying something that cannot be real be real, which in my opinion also reflects the crossover in basketball. There is also more fakes in basketball such as pump fakes, and jab steps to throw the defender off balance. I believe that surrealism can also create an off balance illusion to the viewers. In my piece I fragmented myself to try to achieve that effect. The position I am in also gives a false sense of movement, which attempts to throw a dreamlike effect to the audience. In basketball I tent to use a lot of these fakes, which reflects the art style of surrealism.
After every basketball game I do not even recall the what exactly happened in the game, as everything goes by very fast. Thus for the surrealism design I lightened myself, as a suggestion of reflection, but also the give a sense of urgency, as that is part of the game.
I choose a forest as a background, as the famous chess grandmaster Mikhail Tal, once said "You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest, where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only big enough for one". I also enjoy playing chess, and I love the king's gambit which leads to a lot of complication. So metaphorically I like to take may opponent to a dark forest, and leave him/her stranded there. The mirror will be the escape of the dark forest. I choose a monochromatic design scheme for the mirror and the forest, to camouflage it.
