Self-Portrait, 2007 by Chuck Close The artwork that piqued my interest at the High Museum of Art was Self-Portrait, 2007 by Chuck Close. In this particular painting, Close was influenced by a printing technique used in Japan known as nishiki-e. The nishiki-e technique involves printing multi-colored wooden blocks, which would have a specific engraving on them, and then arranged in a particular way to create an image. Close liked to experiment and combine different styles and techniques, for example employing “different media and materials, using the airbrush and even the fingertips” (Spires) to create new works of art. Close had once said: "Some of these marks look like hot dogs, some look like donuts, some are almost square... My paintings are constructed as if someone were knitting rather than the way someone traditionally paints" (Over and Over Again). Gigantic portraits painted mainly of family, friends; usually people he knew. The portraits Close took of people “are so large that when the viewer gets closer, the surface looks like a series of spots. But, from afar, a large face emerges” (Over and Over Again). When talking about Chuck Close it is important to note his lifestyle as a child. At the age of 4 he loved drawing, so much so that he wanted to be an artist when he grew up. Close did not participate in many sporting activities because he was diagnosed with dyslexia, which prevented him from playing with friends. At the age of 11, Close had already lived a difficult life as a child, but tragedies continued to pile up for him, such as developing nephritis (a kidney infection), his mother becoming ill with breast cancer, his father died and his grandmother developed Parkinson's disease. and then lose... half the card... during his lifetime. Works Cited "Abstract Expressionism". Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. April 11, 2011..Marmor, Jon. Chuck Close, part one. University of Washington - Washington.edu.Washington.edu, 1997. Web. April 13, 2011.."Again and Again." Scholastic Art 2000: 10. ProQuest Research Library. Network. 11 April 2011. "Photorealism". Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. April 11, 2011..Spires, Elizabeth. “Chuck Close Up Close.” New York Times Book Review 1998: 32. ProQuest.Web. April 11th. 2011 .