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Self-Portraiture in Art, Literature, and Philosophy

The Pasticheur: Literature, Art, @ Ideas   /   Deadline: 01/02/26

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The Pasticheur invites artists and writers to submit painting, photography, poetry, prose, and creative nonfiction exploring self-portraiture as an act of inquiry rather than exposure. This issue seeks works that turn the gaze inward not to reveal a fixed identity, but to understand how the self comes into being through the act of creation itself.
Across the history of art and thought, the self-portrait has stood at the threshold between seeing and being seen. From the painter confronting their own reflection to the writer tracing the contours of memory, self-representation is never mere likeness. It is performance, translation, transformation, and a search for the self that slips away even as it comes into view.
"Everyone thinks [my photographs] are self-portraits, but they are not meant to be. If I photograph myself it's because I can push my own limits to the extreme." — Cindy Sherman
"The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action." — John Dewey
"To see is to forget the name of the thing one sees." — Paul Valéry

In visual art, self-portraiture has evolved from the assertion of presence to the questioning of existence. Renaissance artists painted themselves as witnesses to their own craft; contemporary artists fragment, conceal, and reconfigure the self to explore identity, gender, and perception. The camera, the brush, and the written word all become tools of inquiry, ways to think rather than to display.
In literature, the first-person voice performs a similar act of self-making. Memoir, autofiction, and lyric poetry do not document the self so much as invent it anew each time they speak. As in philosophy, where the self is understood as process rather than essence, the act of self-portraiture opens the space where perception and consciousness meet.
This issue will feature the extraordinary works of Aneta Grzeszykowska, Elina Brotherus, and Alyssa Monks, two artists whose explorations of the self, redefine the boundaries between image and identity. Their work will appear alongside a selection of emerging voices in art and literature who share their spirit of introspection and creative risk.
We invite you to inhabit that space.
Send us your questions in image or in word, your attempts to see yourself seeing.

Location

Multiple

Fees

None

Requirements

Submission Guidelines
• Visual art: Painting, photography, drawing, digital, or mixed media (up to 8 works, 300 dpi, JPG format)
• Writing: Poetry (up to 3 poems), prose, or creative nonfiction (up to 1,500 words)
• Deadline: January 2, 2026
• Send to: editor@the-pasticheur.com with the subject line "Self-Portraiture Submission"
"The longest journey," wrote Dag Hammarskjöld, "is the journey inward."
This issue begins there.

Awards

Academic Publication

Evaluation Criteria

Peer-reviewed

Contact Information

Jorge Sagastume
327 W. Main St
Mechanicsburg, PA 17055

P: 17172154632
W: the-pasticheur.com
E: sagastuj@dickinson.edu