A Self-Portrait

My first self-portrait with my new digital Nikon, with my favorite cat, Puffy. As Lily Tomlin said, "I am a real person, much like yourself".

Puffy wandered into my yard when I lived in Hayward, California, due to my animal magnetism no doubt, and he was so fuzzy and small that he looked all puffed out, hence the name; plus, he was the color of a puff of smoke. He's been attached to me ever since, and when I drove from California to Georgia in my camper, he slept down inside my sleeping bag. He likes to sit in this chair like a humanoid, always sitting upright, and it's obvious that he knows where the camera is and what's happening.

I've been watching films since about age 5, introduced by my grandmother, a huge film fan. Her favorite actors were Charles Laughton and Rudolph Valentino, and her favorite actress was Clara Bow, so the silent era influenced her a lot. She got me to watch the Little Rascals every day after school - and of course she called them Our Gang, the original name when they were shown as shorts preceding movies in theaters.

About 10,000 films later, I'm convinced that they've replaced paintings as the visual art form of our era, and that about 90% of them aren't worth watching, let alone re-watching. I have to admit that Clara Bow (below) looked amazing, and deserved to be called "The It Girl", because saying "sex appeal" apparently wasn't allowed in the media, but she definitely had "it".

Clara Bow