I was living by myself in this little — awesome — "split studio" apartment on Queen Anne. I set my VHS-C camera (codename: the bug) on my counter, and shot some video, from which I took this still shot.

I scanned the the Webster’s Dictionary entry for the word "Failure" and superimposed that scan on top of the still.

I added a bright light to distract a bit from the background

I added the image of "the burning heart of Christ" onto my t-shirt, for "dramatic effect" to go along with the darkening of my right eye, as if I had been punched in the face. Be sure, I’m *not* Christian, and am using the Christian reference only to "illustrate a point." Don’t get me started.

I’m standing next to a set of mailboxes I was able to grab while I was living on Broadway Ave., in the Casa Del Rey apartments. Below the apartments there was a Mailboxes ETC., who was thowing out old boxes. These set is heavy as hell and I had to carry it up three flights of stairs in that place. Ugh.

This piece has been sold.

I also wrote the below on my Windows Live Space:

“The Last Self-Portrait of 2000,” though, was a bit more complicated, although most of the complexity is digital. The piece started with video I shot of myself on VHS-C tape using the camera I call “the bug.” I digitized the video using a Dazzle RGB to digital converter on a old Pentium 1 machine with certainly not enough RAM. Eh. From there I captured a single frame and enlarged it using Photoshop 5.0 (remember, this is 2000). In Photoshop I added a black eye (referencing the feeling of getting beat up), the image of Jesus that appears on my t-shirt (representing the "quest for redemption and purity," although I certaiinly do not necessarily *believe* in the divinity of Jesus, or the existence of "divinity" at all), and effects. You’ll find the definition of the word “Failure.” I’ll let you chew on that as you wish.