The cringeworthy moment at which one’s accused guilt is captured forever (and often disseminated on the internet) results in a telling portrait of the subject. Mug shots reveal the emotions, personality traits and sometimes visual vestiges of the crime that was committed, and they’re endlessly fascinating for the world at large to look at. Artist Joanne Arnett exploits those qualities in a series of stunning self-portrait mug shots woven on a loom.

Arnett envisioned five characters, from a young celebutante type to a graying businessman, and transformed herself into them using makeup and props she already had on hand. She photographed herself in costume, digitally added the booking information, and then recreated each mug shot using wire and thread.

The artist, who experimented with weaving facilities while studying at Kent State University, translated all the elements of each photograph into a highly realistic textile. The background patterns and colors were carefully researched to reflect the personality of the character displayed.

“Mug shots are taken at a point between conflict and resolution,” says Arnett. “The person being photographed is documented at a time where life has slipped out of control. There is no opportunity to prepare for the picture, and he knows it will be made public. So there is an interesting element of being alone yet also on display.”

Its a rare artist that hasn’t at one time or another attempted a self-portrait. Sometimes its for the most obvious reason, that in painting himself he has a ready, willing and free model. At other times artists may use self-portraits to advertise their skills, practice their craft, explore some inner turmoil or stake a place in history. Whatever reason the artist might think he had for the painting though, with art as with writing, the act of creation always reveals something about the creator. Whether its the unusual yellow ambience of a Van Gogh or the isolation of Hitlers self-portrait its always possible to learn a little more about the artist by reading between the brush-strokes.

Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528 )

(image source: wikimedia)

The German painter Albrecht Durer was perhaps the first really prolific self-portraitist, producing at least twelve images of himself, including three oil portraits, and figures in four altar pieces. He was something of a child prodigy, painting from an early age, and by his twenties was selling his works all over Europe. He was highly conscious of his public image and reputation and I believe we can see that in this self-portrait which depicts him in an idealized way, elaborately groomed and dressed in the very latest Italian fashion to demonstrate to the world his international success. Although he was only a young man at the time, he was clearly confident of his talent and aiming to go far.

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606–1669 )

(image via: wikipedia)

The Dutch artist Rembrandt was also a prolific painter of self-portraits. At one time about ninety paintings were counted as Rembrandt self-portraits, but it is now known that he had his students copy his own self-portraits as part of their training. Art experts currently believe that he was responsible for over forty paintings, as well as a few drawings and thirty-one etchings, which is still pretty impressive. An interesting aspect of Rembrandt’s self-portraits, other than their undoubted quality, is what we can discover in their sheer number and time-span. They record his progress from an uncertain young man, through his time as a very successful portrait-painter in the 1630s, to the later troubled but powerful self-portraits of his old age.

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746 – 1828)

(image via: wikimedia)

The Spanish painter Goya occupies a unique place in art history, regarded by many as the last of the old masters and first of the moderns. He was a court painter to the Spanish Crown and a chronicler of history, who was bold in handling color and regarded as daring for the subversive elements in his art. In later years he suffered physical and mental breakdown, complaining of deafness, poor vision and loss of balance. Postmortem diagnosis pointed toward possible paranoid dementia due to unknown brain trauma. This self-portrait of him with Dr Arrieta reflects his troubled state of mind, with its themes of illness and mortality.

Vincent Willem van Gogh (1853 – 1890)

(image via: wikimedia

Think about a ‘tormented artist’ and one of the first names that come to mind is likely to be Van Gogh. This Dutch post-impressionist is probably as well known for the ‘cutting-his-own-ear-off’ incident (which may or may not have happened as reported) as he is for his considerable body of work. One of the characteristics of his paintings is the sunny yellow ambiance that infuses them. Van Gogh indulged heavy in absinthe, a drink known to produce ‘yellow vision’ in addicts. The drug digitalis, which he is also believed to have taken, would also produce ‘yellow vision’. Interestingly and strangely enough, Van Gogh never seems to look directly at his ‘audience’ in his self-portraits.

Claude Oscar Monet (1840 – 1926)

(image via: monetalia

Monet was a founder of the French impressionist style of painting, which is based on the artist conveying his perceptions of the subject rather than a precise likeness. The term ‘impressionism’ is in fact derived from the title of Monet’s painting ‘Impression, Sunrise’. As his career developed Monet was plagued by cataracts in his eyes. These reduce vision and can make things appear blurry and ‘out-of-focus’. It is hard to know how much his signature style of softly blurred images owes to artistic vision and how much to his cataract problems. In later life was he interpreting the world in an impressionistic way or simply reflecting the distorted version of it that he actually saw ?

Toulouse Lautrec (1864 – 1901)

(image via: toulouse-lautrec-foundation)

Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa or simply Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a French artist famous for his depictions of the theatrical and decadent life of fin de siecle Paris. Looking at this self-portrait you see in the mirror the reflection of a young man, handsome and apparently normal in all ways that are visible. The reality was somewhat different. As a child he fractured both thigh bones and the breaks did not heal properly. His legs ceased to grow, so that as an adult he was only 5 ft tall, with an adult-sized torso but child-sized legs which were only 27.5 in long. Ironically, in view of his famous preoccupation with the sexuality of the Folies Bergere, he apparently had hyper-trophied genitals too.

Frida Kahlo (1907 – 1954) – painting the pain

(image via: wikipedia)

When looking at this self-portrait, the pain is evident in her face. Pain and determination are both things that characterized this artist’s difficult life. Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón spent many years bedridden following a terrible accident, with only herself for a model. Despite her handicaps she painted prolifically using vibrant colors in a unique style influenced by the indigenous cultures of Mexico and European influences including Realism, Symbolism and Surrealism. Many of her works are self-portraits that symbolically express her own pain and sexuality. The 50 or so of them include many of herself from the waist up, and also some nightmarish representations which symbolize her physical sufferings. She insisted, “I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.”

Andrew Warhol ( 1928 – 1987)

(image via: artquotes)

Andy Warhol, darling of the 1960s New York art scene and prince of ‘pop art’, was a self-styled enigma who hid himself away in the full glare of the worlds media . Though he courted publicity skilfully and at times obsessionally, he was an intensely private person. In manipulating the media he was a master of misdirection and ‘playing dumb’, always claiming that all all anyone needed to know about him and his works was already there, “on the surface”. Its not surprising then that what I see in this self-portrait is an artist who, even while saying to the world ‘hey this is me’, still attempts to camouflage and obscure the reality.

Adolf Hitler (1889 – 1945)

(image via: dailymail)

And here, as they say, is a man who needs no introduction. I think we’re all pretty familiar with his main claims to fame (or infamy) but one of his lesser known aspirations was to be an artist. This watercolor is thought to be the earliest self-portrait by Adolf Hitler, painted in 1910 when the future Fuhrer was 21 and struggling to make his mark on the art world. The figure is strangely anonymous, with no nose or mouth yet Hitler was keen to identify himself by daubing a cross and the initials AH above it. The loneliness of someone who cannot connect with the world around him or the people in it rests on the surface of the self-portrait. Perhaps this was just a romantic vision Hitler had of himself, or perhaps it was a genuine expression of a deeper alienation.

Imagine having a stroke, a severe brain injury or a tumor and suddenly waking up one day to find you’ve developed artistic talents to rival Picasso. It sounds impossible, but the brain is a mysterious organ, and sometimes, damage causes it to rewire itself in ways that reveal new talents even in people who could barely doodle a stick figure.  From the engineer on disability who became a sought-after digital artist after a stroke to a woman whose dementia spurred remarkable creative output, these 10 artists were all transformed by neurological trauma or disorders.

Ken Walters

(images via: The Daily Mail)

Ken Walters was hardly the artistic type before suffering a stroke in 2005. The former engineer had been severely injured in a car accident and was left wheelchair-bound and dependent on benefits to get by. But the cerebral hemorrhage that could have made Walters’ life much more difficult came with an unexpected gift in the form of newfound artistic ability and creative drive. Walters began developing digital art, which led to starting his own software company and a lucrative job with EA games at the age of 51.

Jim Chambliss

(images via: Sparks of Creativity)

In 1998, Jim Chambliss suffered a traumatic brain injury that caused temporolimbic epilepsy (TLE), migraines and temporary cognitive damage. Unable to continue practicing law because of these new challenges, Chambliss became a substitute teacher and one day, while playing with a block of styrofoam, carved a salamander that earned him praise from students and faculty at the high school. Chambliss, who never displayed artistic talents before, discovered that he suddenly had a knack for three dimensional art and went on to earn a Masters in Visual Art from the University of Louisville. He now studies the connections between art, epilepsy and migraines.

Alison Silva

(images via: The Daily Mail)

Alison Silva has been a painter since childhood, but her work never stood out until after a tumor began affecting her brain. Suddenly Silva’s work was darker, deeper and up to 20 times more valuable. The New Jersey artist found herself faced with an incredibly difficult decision: have the tumor removed, or keep her newfound abilities despite the risk of a serious hemorrhage. Her doctor says that Alison’s condition is dangerous, but not life-threatening, so in spite of migraines, insomnia, hallucinations and distorted vision, Silva chose her art.

Alan Brown

(images via: The Daily Mail)

When doctors performed brain surgery on Alan Brown after a stroke, they thought they were just saving his life. Little did they know that somehow, in the course of the operation, they did something that would turn Brown into an artist. Prior to the surgery, Brown could barely manage  a stick figure, let alone a detailed painting. The father of three was handed a pencil, paper and a photograph of a dog by a nurse while recovering in the hospital and reproduced it down to the slightest detail. He’s now a professional artist with a degree in Fine Arts from Worcester University.

Jon Sarkin

(images via: Vanity Fair, Decordova )

Jon Sarkin was a chiropractor who liked golf. Then one day, while playing a round with a friend, he burst a blood vessel in his brain. Suddenly, the man whose life had been so socially proper and orderly became a passionate artist, loud and expressive, who has not stopped compulsively creating artwork since the first day he felt the relentless, insistent need to do it. His work blends painting, poetry and song lyrics with cut-out images to create collages that convey a sense of mystery and abandon.

Sandy Allen

(images via: Seattle PI)

Sandy Allen’s left brain guided her life, from her career in bookkeeping to her medical studies at the University of Washington. Then, part of Allen’s left brain had to be removed along with a golf-ball-sized tumor buried deep in her temporal lobe. That’s when her right brain took over, and art therapy sessions revealed her blooming talent. Allen jokes, “It’s like I’ve had my inhibitions surgically removed.” While she no longer has the language, math and science functions that once seemed to define her, she’s now an artist and has turned her entire home into a studio.

Lester Eugene Potts, Jr.

(images via: The Brain Matters)

Dr. Daniel C. Potts, a neurologist, witnessed a remarkable transformation in a man who had Alzheimer’s disease and suddenly bloomed into a remarkably talented, acclaimed artist. That man was his father, Lester Eugene Potts Jr. Prior to enrolling in a care facility, Lester Potts had stopped smiling and was unable to perform simple tasks. But an assortment of stimulating activities – including art – brought out a side of him that nobody in his family knew existed. Potts became a nationally recognized artist, creating 75 watercolor paintings – all after his diagnosis. He so inspired his son that the neurologist began writing poetry.

Anne Adams

(images via: Now Public)

A rare brain disease, Frontotemporal dementia (FTD), slowly transformed a scientist into a prolific artist who produced more than 1,000 paintings. Anne Adams of Vancouver became aware that something was wrong with her in 2000, when she suddenly lost her ability to speak properly or add simple numbers. After that, Anne spent every day from 9 to 5 in her studio. Her paintings are orderly and methodical, a seeming holdover of her former abilities as a scientist. She continued to paint until 2004 when she could no longer hold a brush, and passed away of FTD in 2007.

Anton Räderscheidt

(images via: raederscheidt.com)

Anton Räderscheidt was already an accomplished artist when he suffered a stroke at the age of 75, with a career spanning several different styles as he escaped Nazi Germany in the 1930s, settled in Paris, moved to Switzerland and finally returned to Cologne in 1949. But after the stroke, Räderscheidt had to completely re-learn how to paint. The changes in Räderscheidt were dramatic; he had disturbances in spatial orientation and in his vision and left-sided hemineglect. He was unable to recognize faces – even those of close relatives. That led him on a quest to regain his abilities, and he painted more than 60 self-portraits. By 1974, five of these portraits indicated that his condition had improved, but his style had changed more dramatically than ever.

Stephen Wiltshire

(images via: stephenwiltshire.co.uk)

Stephen Wiltshire is another example of extraordinary artistic talent coming from abnormalities in the brain, but his neurological condition was present from birth rather than developing later in life. Wiltshire’s autism has been the source of many challenges in his life, but it also gave him an amazing gift: he can draw buildings and landscapes from memory after seeing them just once – he even drew all of central London after viewing it from a helicopter.

Wiltshire was mute, communicating only through drawings, until the age of nine, when teachers encouraged him to begin speaking. He has been the subject of many documentaries and was awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire for his services to art. He now has a permanent gallery in the Royal Opera Arcade in London.