On view in our Members Gallery from August 22 - September 6, 2025 is 100 Selfies in the Bathroom Mirror by one of the Alternator’s founding members, Michael Griffin.
On “100 selfies in the bathroom mirror,” one a night for one hundred nights
Drawing these small self-portraits was a task I set myself during a period of boredom, a task that started with twenty-five and gradually grew to be one hundred, one a night for a hundred nights in front of the bathroom mirror. I was bored because my studio was more or less packed up for moving, a move that has yet to happen. And the last ten were tedious. These are drawings of a virtual self, a reversed image, the one we think we are because we see it all the time as us, which is maybe why photos of us can catch us so unawares, more as others see us. So these really aren’t like Selfies, that new technological way of communicating a virtual image of ourselves, curated in our phones to disguise for ourselves and others who we are. And maybe to reveal. The phone selfie says, “Look at me, I exist!” A cry for recognition in the electronic void.
The mirror and self-portraiture are constant themes in visual art. The mirror self portrait speaks of intention, skill, experimentation and a way of revealing something concealed: Perhaps. According to Google, the image of the self in the mirror has deep psychological and spiritual significance. Did Rembrandt use one mirror, or two, the second to move from the virtual to the real? His final self-portrait is devastatingly revealing.
The question is, have I learned anything, has this deeply introspective task been of value to the me I think I am? So I’ll have to have another look, especially now that I see them displayed for the public.
As I write this, however, I remind myself that none of this theorizing about mirrors and symbols and history and meaning mattered so much as the determined task of standing in front of the mirror in the bathroom, looking at the reflection of my face, studying it and drawing it quickly in different drawing tools, then colouring some with watercolour for an effect. In other words, the object was understanding the structure of what I was looking at and drawing it. Every night for one hundred nights. That must say something about me.
Michael’s current art practice is focused on figure drawing and painting. He is particularly interested in the immediacy of the gesture, involving a rapid laying down of images, often while the subject is moving. During the Covid pandemic, he made and exhibited small paintings of figures walking on the boardwalk in downtown Kelowna. Michael also made a large series of watercolour gestural drawings in Ballet Kelowna’s studio, a number of which he has turned into paintings. Michael’s work is strongly influenced by German Neo-expressionism, as well as by artists who have included text in their work, such as Jasper Johns and Barbara Kruger.
Michael has exhibited widely in the Okanagan and elsewhere in BC in both public and private galleries. His work is in collections in Germany, the UK, California and BC. He has also been involved in arts development in Kelowna, including the OAA (Alternator), the Kelowna Public Art Gallery, the Kelowna Public Art Commission and the Rotary Centre for the Arts. Michael has a BA from UBC, a BFA from UVic and an MA from SFU.