By Jimmy Merris
Self-portrait, 1993/4/5
My first proper self-portrait. I think I was about 10, and I really, really tried. FA Cup ears. I think I went in hard with an HB pencil on the hair and used a 4B for the rest, working the finger and the putty rubber. I ripped it out of a scrapbook recently. It’s the only picture on my wall in the studio. I look at it and think: That’s me that is. But I was doing my best, and that’s all that counts, apparently.
I’d sell it to someone for all of their hundreds of pounds, but I don’t think anyone would buy it. I couldn’t let it go anyway. They can have a photocopy: 50 quid. Make the work you want to see and all that. Come to think of it, it’s a shame to lose any of it really.