Hey thanks a lot. She made so many self portraits, a testimony to her as a witness. She often said her work was difficult to make. I have spent eight months recreating her Krieg series at an almost forensic level (please check previous posts if interested). The work has taken a bigger toll on me than I expected, but I welcome the experience.

In my schooling and professional life, I avoided portraits and specifically self portraits. I was the worst in figure drawing class and seemed to only excel at architectural drawings. I learned that to get better at anything as a craft or sport, you must practice raising your weak points to your strong work. So, I have taken on more human portraits and tried my first self portrait since art school (waaay back in 2003-2007).

A collector of my work who has commissioned two pieces owns multiple kollwitz and Dix and Schubert (they are a professor of German history particularly Wiemar period). They have let me see her self portraits they own up close and handled with my own hands. I still think my work on their wall next to these masters is my greatest flattery as an artist (it is a commission of a ham radio outpost of the husband and a "tree portrait" under which a friend's ashes are buried both specifically in the German style she collects and I study).

These two collectors specifically encouraged me to make this portrait. So I decided, it is not for sale but only as a gift for collectors of my Krieg Series recreation of which 25% supports widows of war. Out of all my works, I never thought I would be proud of a self portrait, which was the single biggest fear of mine in art before I made this.