Self Portrait I

I have recently been thinking of doing a self portrait series, so here we go....

Light and dark, life and death, never one without the other.

So, dear Sir, I can't give your any advice but this: to go into yourself and see how deep the place is from which your life flows; at its source you will find the answer to the question of whether you must create. Accept that answer, just as it is given to you, without trying to interpret it. Perhaps you will discover that you are called to be an artist. Then take that destiny upon yourself, and bear it, its burden and its greatness, without ever asking what reward might come from outside. For the creator must be a world for himself and in Nature, to whom his whole life is devoted.

[Letter to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke]