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Chance Kafka

4 Years Ago

Meaning Behind Avatars

I thought this would be a fun thread to talk about avatars. They are the face that greets fellow artists and (hopefully buyers). In a community like this, it is how we being to recognize eachother.

What is the meaning behind your avatar? Is yours a standard headshot, or is there a deeper meaning to it? Are you communicating a message with it? I see many folks that have unique avatars and have always wondered what meaning they carry.

I'll talk about mine. It was one I actually put a lot of thought into (though not when I originally took it).

It is actually based off a phone selfie I took at the Grand Canyon. I felt this one would be perfect, because most of my portfolio dealers with Arizona, and the Grand Canyon is what Arizona is probably best known for. You can see I have a Nikon strapped to my neck, which is cool since I'm primarily a photographer.

I included my logo in the dead space (which are my initials, in a typographical style that is similar to how I sign my initials, and also in my favorite color) and rendered it in a "painterly" poster look look with the primary color matching my logo. The somewhat painterly effect is a hint to the fact I paint as well. My expression even kind of matches my personality - a rather serious, reserved exterior with a slight smirk (much of it in shadow), showing underneath that I have a silly, rather mischievous side (once you get to know me)

So I'm curious see if others have folks have stories about their avatars. They can really be a work of art all on their own.

Note - Please do not post images to this thread per forum rules - thanks!

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VIVA Anderson

4 Years Ago

I really like your avatar...it suits you,your Art.
Mine now, prob 4th since returning to FAA, suits me,I hope.
It evokes my love of colour,also my 'signature',and,location.
'Not just a pretty face" lol.

 

Yuri Tomashevi

4 Years Ago

My avatar is just me smiling. Of course, there is a story why I was in good mood and smiling at the time but nobody could detect it from my avatar. Thus I could not put too much meaning into my avatar.

 

Carmen Hathaway

4 Years Ago

 

I enjoy changing mine up occasionally.






 

Roger Swezey

4 Years Ago

As a long time veteran of Face to Face shows, I carry that mindset here on the internet.

So, I present my face to the public here


Oh how I miss not seeing their individual faces.

At times, I make up faces for some of my persistent buyers.


A case,when that came to a crashing ending:

For years, Penny, to me a lovely, sophisticated lady, kept buying my work,(particularly my horseshoe crab masks) here on the internet.

And then one day, I saw "her" in person, when Penny turned into a burly bearded GUY.

I had to confess to him, that I can't accept the fact that he is not the "Penny" I've known all those years.

He tried to convince me that in England "Penny" is a common male nickname, with no success.

 

Abbie Shores

4 Years Ago

My avatar is nearly always one of the latest photos taken of me... Or one under a year old This one is incorporating my new series, 'Freedom'. Each piece of work contains birds flying, and the main image description tells the story behind this body of work that's both digital and photographic.. https://pixels.com/featured/urban-dreams-trust-your-wings-and-fly-abbie-shores.html

@Roger ... Penny is NOT a common male nickname!!! UNLESS it was a take on a surname.

 

Western Exposure

4 Years Ago

Mine is a photo favourite from many years ago. I adopted it as my logo for all sites and social media because not only does it befit a lot of my rural imagery but it also goes nicely with "Western Exposure" if you think of the wee chick as being exposed on its left/western side.

 

Mike Savad

4 Years Ago

the meaning changes monthly, i have i think around a 100 of them now. mostly done as fun, hard to say if it helps me or not, but i do think it attracts attention. right now i'm a tooth fairy.


https://www.facebook.com/mike.savad/media_set?set=a.156777467682259.34720.100000500199248&type=3
here are the others.


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

 
C I

C I

C I

4 Years Ago

My avatar came about after one of the many times I had issue with Facebook. Initially it was just a vertical orientated silhouette of me, a play on the Facebook default avatar. I now use it as a logo, and I spin the avatar orientation to suit my need. I am using grey on grey here, but I also have colour coded versions (on my connect with this space Facebook page for example at: http://www.facebook.com/Connect.with.this.Space/). To compensate for not showing my true self (in the avatar), I have placed a photo with me in it on my about page, should you care to look :-)

 

My Avatar is of an old camera lens that was on a life-size large format camera. The round shutter speed dial on top has Chicago inscribed which surprise, is what I photograph. In the center of the lens element, one can see me in an action pose taking a photograph. I think it catches people's eye more than would my ugly mug.

 

Val Arie

4 Years Ago

I have had I think three here so far, first a head shot rendered in a painted style, then and cropped B&W, and now a piece of my art. No particular meaning except the latest is my art. I use the same on all sites and social media.

When I went from my last head shot I decided to go with the present because I needed a new head shot. My hair I grew out, changed it's color and lost 30 pounds so I kind of look different so thought the headshot should be different too. I'm lazy and haven't bothered to take/have taken a new one....

But after reading Wings thread: https://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=4826639 I thought he made a very good point and might reevaluate what and how I use it.

 

Hans Zimmer

4 Years Ago

Mine is / shows just me and my deepest respect and admiration for firefighters and 1st responders and their tireless commitment. I think they´re a special kind of breed and we - as a society - would be a lot different / poorer without ém.

 

Chuck De La Rosa

4 Years Ago

I've generally used photos that my wife took of me while I was shooting somewhere, usually in a US national park. My current one was in the Great Smoky Mountains.

 

Mary Bedy

4 Years Ago

Wow, you guys mostly put more thought into your avatars than I have. I can't remember what I started with here - I think it was a red barn, but then I wanted something I could find easily in the discussion threads, etc., so when they upped the size requirements a few years ago for the avatar, I went to stark black and white. Easy to find. I have a short name, so it fit, and I generally hate photographs of myself. Most people here have seen my face, however, it's not that I don't want to be seen, but I just hate photos of myself. My son seems to be the only one who can take a decent photo of me.

This one also works when I have to use it in a round format somewhere, if I just remove my name. No magical significance, though.

 

Roger Swezey

4 Years Ago

I'm probably all wrong, since I'm not doing "Gang Busters" on the internet.

Anyway

I still believe, it's as important to sell one's self as one's art

Thus an avatar of "ME"

http://www.rogerswezey.com/

 

Peggy Collins

4 Years Ago

I don't ever want anyone to call me two-faced so for my avatar, I only show half a face.

I didn't give much thought to my avatar, I must admit. I had to take a picture of myself for a magazine article so I set up my camera on a tripod in my back yard. There was too much greenery and distracting stuff in the background for an avatar so I blacked it out instead. I think I was fooling around with positioning the avatar when I decided that half my face looked more interesting than full on.

 

Robert Woodward

4 Years Ago

I've always wanted to be a zebra.

 

David Randall

4 Years Ago

It might be different if it weren't called, "Avatar." That in itself distorts.

 

Tony Murray

4 Years Ago

My avatar is made up of a couple of things. One is obviously my hand which signifies my desire to create, and has a sculpted look to it (metal sculpture is my most preferred medium.).The hand is posed to reflect DaVinci's creation of Adan image but looking at the hand from a different angle. My face is a scratch board image which is another media I play with. I superimposed it into my hand since photography is also one of the things I both love and love to use to create. There is a Science fiction backdrop to everything which has always been a love of mine.

 

Chance Kafka

4 Years Ago

Thank you Viva.

Enjoyed reading through the different replies! I have noticed yours changes each month Mike, was cool to see all of them that you shared. Fun indeed

 

Dora Hathazi Mendes

4 Years Ago

Last time I changed it when I had my hair cut from long to shorter. I normally go to the hairdresser only once in every 10 years, so I thought it will be never again that good :D

At the previous one, and this one too, I have a wall tapestry from FAA about my 12 Cat Zodiac paintings together. I thought it will be a colourful background which catch the eye, and a glimpse about what I do.

astrology cat zodiacs art by Dora Hathazi Mendes

 

Gaby Ethington

4 Years Ago

Mine is a photo my one of daughters took of me when she took me out to see wild flowers up north of me in Texas (she also likes to go on photo excursions). I cannot drive long distances because of balance problems so it was a treat for her to spend a day with me photographing wildlife and flowers. She took this as I was sitting in the bluebonnets, it was a chilly Spring day but sunny and I was happy to be out. I will probably change it for Fall in the next month or so.

 

Jason Fink

4 Years Ago

Walt Disney World nerd

 

Tame Anderson

4 Years Ago

Tame like Chance anime avatar. Tame anime avatar too [smile]. Tame avatar Tame wear leathers protect Tame on motorcycle.

 

Connie Fox

4 Years Ago

Like yours, Chance, mine is a phone selfie. The light was especially good through a north window and really showed my eyes--which I thought would be nice to emphasize since art is so visual. Usually I smile more openly in pictures and, I think, look friendlier. So I call this my "don't mess with Texas" look. This picture reveals a touch of artistry in my clothing and accessories, too, and that ties in with how my bio begins. I did give this some thought, though I don't have a clue how it comes across.

 

Jennifer White

4 Years Ago

I like to use a portrait of myself. I think it helps the buyer make more of a connection with who the artist is. I just think it's a little more professional. I need to update it. I haven't changed much but it's a couple years old. I tell my clients they should update their headshots every year to every 2 years depending on how many changes they go through (hair, weight, ect.). So it's time for me to do what I preach lol.

 

Kirsten Giving

4 Years Ago

I am standing on the top of Haleakala in Maui at an elevation that is a little over 10,000 ft. The sun was brilliant and the wind was blowing furiously. I chose this photo because I think I look friendly and because I spend a lot of time in Maui, playing golf. I am above those beautiful clouds!

 

Bradford Martin

4 Years Ago

My current avatar was a self portrait I made according to the guidelines of a real estate photography company the contracts with me. I have had an issue with photographs of myself since I started losing pigment in my face due to vitiligo. My first avatar here was taken while I was photographing a small concert and I got under the red lights and had someone take my photo. I got a comment right away that my avatar was too saturated (by design) so after a while I put up a head shot of a Kestrel which is a bird I like to photograph. I hied a photographer to do a studio shot and we made it B&W, but I really didn't like it. then I had a friend who is a portrait artist to one of me. A little more realistic then the caricatures she does for tourists. but not her best work either. And that worked for a while, but it was a sketch and I am not a sketch artist. So now I am just happy to have an avatar to use across all sites, if I want. It has been almost a year and the next new one will either be another self portrait outdoors or something a photoshop artist wants to make for me. He wants to make something I can use for my music and photography. Right now a selfie without showing obvious vitiligo is a milestone.

 

Chance Kafka

4 Years Ago

Enjoying these responses. Not enough time to reply to everyone, but I thank everyone for responding and want to mention --

Gaby, that was a touching story

Tame, thanks for the laugh

Bradford - your avatar looks great and I cannot even tell. I am sorry you have to deal with that - but you are a great photographer so of course you have a great self portrait. I commend you for sharing your story

I myself, kind of hate the way my face looks. I don't think I am totally ugly, but I just don't like pictures of myself. So I kind of like how I rendered mine (anime, as Tame said) - it shows my features and stuff still, but it is still veiled enough it's not just a headshot. I did have a headshot (nice looking phone selfie) that I had on here for a while, but switched to my current one

 

Carmen Hathaway

4 Years Ago

Always fun changing things up. This incarnation has my face, and especially, the gist of what most of my art's about.

🎼♭♫ ♪ ♫ I love the java-java ☕ & it loves me..JavaScript that is. ;)  ♮♫ ♪♬

Some will get it, some won't.

View the high resolution, large avatar on my website biography page: https://carmenhathaway.com/biography

Good thing I posted this — just caught a bunch of exhibit links on my bio page that weren't in sync. Fixed.

 

Dyla Der

4 Years Ago

mine is from the sort:
Creating the account .... typing, typing ..... Oops, they want a avatar uploaded ?
A pic of me ? I hate selfies .... desperately searching on the hard disc for a pic ... oh, there is one old fractal pic, that suits well. Nobody will watch anyway

 

Abbie Shores

4 Years Ago

Lol Dyla

 

Steve Cossey

4 Years Ago

I like my Raven, they eat roadkill.

 

Jessica Jenney

4 Years Ago

I tend to change by the season,. Now I'm wearing a wide brim hat for summer. I have an avatar for winter with winter hat and snow. I will change them across all my sites.

 

Lois Bryan

4 Years Ago

Mine is me on one of the most exciting, happiest days of my life. I'm not talking about life-altering-significant like a wedding or birth of a child or grandchild or anything like that. No, this is very personal. Ever since ... what, junior high school? ... when we learned about ancient Greece and Rome, I've wanted to visit the Mediterranean. Never, ever thought I'd get there ... but I did!! So this is a shot of me ... standing on top of an active volcano (active? cough cough ... so they said?) with the Greek island of Santorini in the background. I was so happy, so excited during that trip, it's a miracle I didn't float right off the ground and wind up on the moon.

Since it was taken a number of years ago, I've toyed with the idea of updating it, and actually have done so several times. But the bottom line is, I still look pretty much the same (if you don't look toooo close), and on the inside, this is the real me. And when I see it, it reminds me of those amazing days ... and makes me happy all over again. So I keep going back to it.

As Jessica mentioned above, this is the same image across all my sites, too.

 

Carmen Hathaway

4 Years Ago

 

Interesting avatar descriptions — great topic, Chance!



 

Robert Kernodle

4 Years Ago

My avatar is a cropped photo of an original painting that I did, in a series called Cosmic Head Pieces. I did four paintings in this series, ... acrylic on canvas, ... 60" x 36" each.

The one that I chose for the avatar was called Mists of Platonia. It was inspired by a really heady (i.e., intellectual) book on modern physics -- I forgot the author and title at the moment. The whole series symbolized the human head as the limiting vessel of the human mind, which is always searching (looking upward) to find or grasp complete answers to questions that can never be completely answered. The head (in this series) symbolizes the mind, in other words. The mind looks forever into the vastness of the unknown, but the limits of the mind amidst this vastness keeps questions forever unanswered completely, which makes life interesting and an eternal quest.

If your brain can take it, here's a link to an archive where some of my philosophical journal rantings appear, which is where I was in my own head during these intensely creative times:

LINK

Each of the dates marks a journal entry where I wrote these ideas down. The original writings are somewhere in a series of spiral notebooks, among two thousand or so other hand-written pages [on paper -- what's THAT!] of art self-documentation, covered in dust, in a rusting shed, in my backyard.

 

Drew

4 Years Ago

I liked Billy Blake's paintings from the day I saw them. He was unique when unique was not in vogue.

 

Laurie's Intuitive

4 Years Ago

I have used 3 avatars here. Each are reflective to me of specific times in my life with special meanings.
My current avatar, from 6 years ago, reflects times gone by that were free and easy. I learned how to ride a dirt bike when I was in the sixth grade. I enjoyed riding motorcycles in my 20's. I no longer ride any type of motorcycles but often think of that wonderful feeling from years ago. It is still nice to feel it even through a photo of me posing on a friend's bike.
Another avatar I use reminds me of the year I turned 50. I was at a very special formal event and it was a wonderful time. Dressing up for an elegant event was fun! Turning 50 was a great time in my life.
And then there is my avatar with who I am everyday which will change as time goes on I think, or maybe not. Maybe there will be more avatars from different times in my life, it depends on what I feel at the time.
Very nice and interesting discussion, Chance! Thank you.

 

Lisa Kaiser

4 Years Ago

I hope my avatar tells the world that I am a kind person.

 

Lise Winne

4 Years Ago

Mine is a Renaissance costume I wore and made (and the longer view has my Celtic harp).

A lot of my art is fantasy art, story book art and olde world kind of art - the pic seemed to fit.

 

Riley Bradford

4 Years Ago

Mine doesn't really have a whole lot of meaning to it. It was just the most recent photo of me when I joined FAA.

 

Connie Fox

4 Years Ago

Chance, we never see ourselves as others do, but I think the subtle changes you've made make you look like a movie star--slightly incognito and a little mysterious. And that's the draw. Kudos, too, for use of your initials, which add interest. Good job and fascinating topic.

 

Chance Kafka

4 Years Ago

thank you very much Connie - while I wasn't imagining movie star, that is good to know. I was going for a bit mysterious and incognito to add interest!

 

Uther Pendraggin

4 Years Ago

My avatar came with the package. Didn't everybody's?

But seriously (whatever THAT means) it is absolutely my intention to be non recognized and at the same time instantly recognizable.

The "Avatar" is Uther. He is a character I play on Fine Art America and AuthorPendraggin.com

He is a less stressed/less combative less cynical, less sarcastic, less bombastic version than the other characters I play on the internet and IRL. It's an "Eminence Front." I like him, he has taught me a lot.

Here's what is weird about this thread to me.

Just the day before yesterday I signed up for Facebook for the first time ever (which reminds me... I haven't seen Susan... used to be a Mod... here in a long while. Best thoughts go out to her!) and I used a name for a new character I had to invent for my hemp project. Now here I am talking about the creation of characters for various internet activities. Knowing that it is what I do (we all do) all of the time. Projecting an image to influence the perception of others.

In my Avatar, the situation was myself and my two oldest friends (they're brothers) as we used to stand in his driveway and drink under the stars. It was at this house that I discovered my "Technique" with LEDs. My buddy gave me some LED tea lights from his daughter's wedding so I could have put them into the light pole we had constructed at the beach house. Being the clown that I am (my avatar with them) , I clowned around with the lights and this was one of the results. I think it suits the name.

Why do I use an alias? Up until the day I joined Facebook, I thought I was the only person on the continent with my name. (I found some guy going by my name in Canada. It could be his name too, so I apologized for any inconvenience I may have caused. Out politing a Canadian! I have not heard back from him, so he could be just riding my chemtrail.) I don't like others knowing my business so I avoid telling people my name in that there is no anonymity in my name (like if I was a Bob Smith or some such name) I've been stalked before when I used my name, don't care to go through it again.

Thanks for the conversation.(I know, you didn't feel like you got to get a word in edgewise. It's OK, I'm perceptive that way! ;-) I know what you were going to say, consider it said.)

PLAU
UPD

 

Andrea Lazar

4 Years Ago

I've used only one image to tie me to my photography from day one. It is what got me to pursue photography more seriously, at least as seriously as my time allows for now.

I took it years ago on a June day, just intending to take a picture of a beautiful tulip that seemed to be lit up from within by the sun. As I held my breath and waited for the gentle breeze to subside, I heard a humming drone sound behind me, then a flash over the tulip, and peeking over the top of the camera, I saw in amazement the hummingbird hovering right over it. I instinctively pressed the shutter, and he was gone. When I looked at the image in the camera, I could not believe it! I love that this little being flew into my view and made this perfect composition for me. He has been my muse ever since.

And this photo to this day is the embodiment of that same joy, the joy I feel taking photographs. After all, that is one of the best meanings of 'avatar' - embodiment.

 

Doug Swanson

4 Years Ago

I should reconsider mine. It really is NOT an avatar in the dictionary sense - "a manifestation of a deity or released soul in bodily form on earth; an incarnate divine teacher.". What it was is that I was creating an account, needed one so I reached for my phone, did a selfie and that was that.

I'm thinking that I might sell more if mine looked like an incarnate divine teacher. Or, at least I'd have some students.

 

Abbie Shores

4 Years Ago

Got bored of mine. Changed to this one. Tree = hugging. Need I say more

 

Mario Carta

4 Years Ago

It's kind of like a clothing article, I wear different things for going fishing and for going to the supermarket and for going to work. None of those things I wear totally defines me as a person but it might give you a glimpse about who I am. I know this, when I used to dress in a $1,500. suite people would open doors for me and when I am in sweaty handyman clothing they let the door close in my face. :-)

 

Chance Kafka

4 Years Ago

Nice replies guys. Lol Abbie.

I've thought I'd changing mine to mix it up - but this one kinda feels like my "brand" or something

 

This discussion is closed.