In my class I've given as the first assignment a self portrait. I do this to get my students fully aware that their work is personal, it is about them--so I figure this is sort of my way to get them to look inside. I tell them they should think about doing assignments based on what thy think I like, but what they like and what their work is about. I want students to solve problems their way. Not mine. If they solve things on their own they will have the tools to that 'out in the real world' after college. So after giving the assignment I stumbled on a folder with some pictures I'd been meaning to put into a piece and ended up making my own self portrait for the day. This may lead to a bigger piece, I'm not sure yet. By Richard Sayer