*click the images to see them in the community gallery and learn more about the artist.

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Vote for your three favorite Self Portraits out of the submissions below. You can vote here. The winners will receive awesome prizes including:

• ALL entries will be posted on the front page for 1 week.
• The top 10 winners will be featured on the front page along with a write-up about their work and links to whatever they want.
• The top 3 winners will be listed in the Hall of Fame on the About Page
• The 1st and 2nd place winners will receive a “surprise” in the mail (don’t be scared)
• The 1st place winner will ALSO receive a formal NS recommendation letter complete with testimonials from some of the best artists in their field from around the world. Seriously.

Also please give feedback to the artists in the comments. This contest was spontaneously announced last week through our private networks. No one was rejected from participating in this contest, but only people within our network were invited to participate. Show your support! Thank you.

When voting think about creativity, personality, and emotion.

Julia Wang

United States

Photographer & Student

Mario Sánchez Nevado

Spain

Illustrator & Graphic Artist

Molly Marlette

Hollywood, United States

Musician

Allison Litera

Hartford, United States

Illustrator & Student

Dan Desroches

Montreal, Canada

Photographer

Jonathan Mandell

Pennsylvania, United States

Mosaic Artist

The sky in the window is sodalite.  The chair cushion is rhodonite.  My eyes are tiger-eye.  The head of the tile nippers are made from abalone.  The sodalite, rhodonite, abalone, and mirror are repeated in the upper right corner.  There is a tiny piece of leopard skin jasper in the upper right indicating a minute image of self-portrait.  The perspective is a view through the armature, which supports the mosaic in progress in the image.  This mosaic is 22″ x 22″.

Nathan Price

Ontario, Canada

Photographer & Student

Cecilia Beaven

Mexico

Visual Artist

Ink and Acrylic, 15 x 15 cm

Odette Beris

United Kingdom

Singer-Songwriter

A song I wrote that I feel encapsulates something about my intrinsic style/personality perhaps.

Title – “Song of Love”

song-of-love-by-odette-beris

Olivia Bossert

Switzerland

Photographer & Student

Gogi Saroj Pal

India

Visual Artist

Kyle Mensing

South Carolina, United States

Social Media Marketing Guru & Blogger

Title- “The Ongoing Struggle Between the Opposing Forces of Optimism and Pessimism for Universal Control of the Popular Sentiment”

Maarja Mäemets

Estonia

Photographer & Student

Danielle Tunstall

United Kingdom

Photographer & Graphic Artist

This is called “dia de los muertos” (day of the dead) it best represents me due to it being so personal, its done in memory of my mum, the lilies were her favorite flower and they represent her life and its beauty and the skull for her death, it all so represents my style of work due to the dark overtone.

Jodie Andrews

United Kingdom

Photographer & Student

Eleanor Bennett

United Kingdom

Photographer & Student

At 15 years of age, her work has been exhibited around the globe and published in multiple magazines. Eleanor is the winner of the the National Geographic Kids Photography Contest and the World Photography Organization’s Photomonth Youth award winner for 2010. She was also the youngest person to be exhibited with Charnwood Art’s Vision 09 exhibition.

This is a movement self portrait in which you can see my home city Manchester behind me. I never use photoshop! but you can guess it was a hard shot to get.

Title – “See Through Girl”

Eva González López

Spain

Photographer

Kati Mennett

Photographer

This shot is called “Those Moments” and it is part of my documentary project “We Drive” on my family and friends

Mara Brioni

Italy

Photographer

“Vacuum Cleaner” – my favourite self

Ben Wytinck

Canada

Singer-Songwriter

Title – “Safe in the Den”

09 Safe In The Den – Ben Wytinck

Larissa Felsen

Brazil

Photographer

Makayla Balcher

United States

Photographer & Student

Taken with a shutter remote.

Lucia Moretti

Switzerland

Photographer

Shelby Carson

United States

Photographer & Student

Sharanya Ramesh

India

Student & Aspiring War Correspondent

“Bliss”

Lara Zankoul

Lebanon

Photographer & Student

Gregoire A. Meyer

France

Dancer, Choreographer & Photographer

Title – “Camouflage”

Kattiany Lima

Brazil

Photographer & Model

Nader Dasuki

Palestine

Graphic Designer

Richard Brandon Yates

Texas, United States

Photographer & Student

This portrait is very minimal, but holds a lot of pain and meaning to me.

Kirk Stewart

Boston, United States

Author, Poet & Student

“Every once in a while I see how fortunate I am to be… let alone be me”

Greta Tuckute

Denmark

Photographer & Student

Greta is currently only 16 years-old! Very talented.

Escher Jacquemar

Austria

Visual Artist & Student

Stencil Self-Portrait

Megan Breukelman

Ontario, Canada

Photographer & Student

Megan is currently only 17 years-old! Hello, talent.

Bhumika Bhatia

New Delhi, India

Photographer & Student

The 1st portrait i ever clicked of myself.

Patrick Nietupski

Northampton, United States

Engineer, Author, & Aspiring Cartoonist

Shannon Serrao

Sydney, Australia

Photographer & Student

Kayleigh McKitchen

Massachusetts, United States

Photographer & Student

Title – “Tied Together With a Smile”

Claudio Parentela

Catanzaro, Italy

Journalist, Tarotologist & Visual Artist

Bex Saunders

United Kingdom

Photographer & Student

Bex is currently only a 15 year-old photographer! This self portrait was inspired by Marilyn Manson.

Brittany Gibbons

New York, United States

Dancer & Student

Kristin Davis

Georgia, United States

Businesswoman

Anne Lorraine Uy

Philippines

Photographer & Student

My self-portrait where I posed as a doll because as an artist, I like changing the way I look but keeping it still romantic and sweet.

Tiffany Apan

Pennsylvania, United States

Singer-Songwriter

One of my most personal songs as of recent.

Title – “Antarctica”

antarctica-by-tiffany-apan

Eryn Topping

Ontario, Canada

Photographer & Student

Title – “Fall Easy”

Laurent Bompard

Wien, Austria

Visual Artist

Title – “self-portrait as a garden gnome”

Katie Eleanor

United Kingdom

Photographer & Student

Matt Duffin

California, United States

Visual Artist (usually Encaustic Wax)

Asad Chishti

Ontario, Canada

Photographer & Student

Emily Tebbetts

Boston, United States

Photographer, Student & Nonsense Society Editor

Maxine Keough-Lopez

Boston, United States

Author

My boss just saw me making this and now legitimately thinks I am retarded. My self portrait is me sitting on a pile of heads and hundos, holding a spear. I think it’s pretty true to life.

Don’t Forget To Vote!

Vote for your three favorite Self Portraits out of the submissions above. You can only vote once. Votes that do not include three different artists will not be counted! REMEMBER – When voting think about creativity, personality, and emotion. You have until May 7th to vote, so make it count! Winners will be announced on May 9th.

Missed the submission period?!

This was a privately announced contest. If you’d like to be part of future NS Contests & Events, email chris@nonsensesociety.com and join the movement! You can also join the Nonsense Society ranks by following us on Twitter & Facebook.

Leave Some Feedback

These artists spend a lot of time on their work. Help us out by giving some feedback in the comments. Out of the thousands of people in our network, very few ever comment. It makes a big difference…

Thank you, Nonsense Society!

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Carefully chosen words make the satire wicked and the comedy rapier-sharp. His humor comes on many levels — sometimes over-the-top, often much more subtle — and that makes an evening rise above stand-up comedy to something closer to social commentary.” — Jon Potter, Brattleboro Reformer

Various Characters

Music by Sethums: Older Than Hours

Sethums’ other musical endeavor: Jesus Year

This Summer’s Tour

Watch out for Sethums in a city near you! He will be touring the United States.

Losing My Religion: Confessions of a New Age Refugee highlights the absurdities, paradoxes, and heartfelt qualities of having any kind of spiritual leaning. The audience is escorted through an earnest, sidesplitting depiction of the trials and tribulations of losing and finding one’s spiritual path.

Lepore uses his fecund imagination to take a humorous and sincere look at the pitfalls and biases that make up the melting pot of spiritual choices. The intention of the piece is to create a dialogue of deep questioning in terms of how we view our own faith, belief systems and judgment of those who we don’t understand, all the while having a high level of humor to dilute the dogma.

Losing My Religion: Confessions of a New Age Refugee is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions in behalf of Losing My Religion: Confessions of a New Age Refugee may be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

Support Seth and the wonderful art he creates!

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This Apology

People Can Tell You Lies

People Can Tell You Lies

Girl

Girl

The Great Divorce

The Great Divorce

Saddy

Saddy

I’m Sorry Son

Im Sorry Son

His debut album released in early 2010 is titled “Could This Be…” The gutsy folk style sound is perfectly matched with his soulful voice, and is reminiscent of an older time. He somehow manages to marry the old and new drawing inspiration from legends such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and Paul Simon, along with some newer talent such as Arcade Fire, and M. Ward. Highlights from his debut album include “Alone Trying to find a Home”, and “Girl”.

Jeffrey is getting ready to release his Sophomore album titled “Badder Times”. His second album still has that folk feel we love about him, but is a little edgier and less reserved then “Could This Be”. His lyrics are more personal and really draw you in with their candor. You truly finish the album feeling as if you’ve had a true glimpse into his life.

What is so smart and truly distinctive about Jeffreys sound is that he is the only performer on both albums, every harmonica, guitar, or bass you hear was written and performed by him. His incredible energy and passion for music will undoubtedly capture you. Each song on badder times is unique, but will arrest you with its realness.

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to see the source, click (on) the image.

With Approbation

• blog.imjonas.com
• butdoesitfloat.com
• ffffound.com
• thirtythr33.de

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I started doing this back when the Nonsense Society was born, but it never caught on. Every day I watch artists hide their amazing work from the world because they are terrified that someone will steal it and they won’t make any money. Don’t do that! I hope to hear some of my music on the big screen someday. Until then, I want anyone and everyone to use it.

I ask that you donate at least 99 cents per song. Anything above that would be really nice. Use the music all you want, but please cite my name. I’d love to see the project when it’s done.

- Chris Collins

P.S.If you want me to write music specifically for your project let me know.

Join Me!

Spread your creativity to the world! It feels good, promise. If you want to donate some of your music to this movement, email me at chris@nonsensesociety.com

The Music

All tracks are available for purchase and download on my bandcamp page or on iTunes. You can get the whole album or each piece individually. Please note: I add new tracks often!

<a href=”http://chriscollins.bandcamp.com/album/music-for-films-not-yet-written” mce_href=”http://chriscollins.bandcamp.com/album/music-for-films-not-yet-written”>Music For Films Not Yet Written by Chris Collins</a>

Create something with one of these and Nonsense Society will gladly promote it.

More creativity by Chris Collins?

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The Night That Paddy Murphy Died

The Night That Paddy Murphy Died

Lukey’s Boat

Lukey’s Boat

The Gypsy Rover

The Gypsy Rover

The Jolly Beggars Story

Summer 2009 - Jeff DesRosier and his family visit Ireland. Jeff goes to all the pubs he can and listens to the music. He learns songs from the pub musicians.

September 2009 - Jeff asks Christopher Vece if he’ll play some Irish music with him. Chris says no.

October 2009 - Jeff comes over to Chris’ house and the two play some songs together – Jeff on guitar and mandolin, Chris on a junky tin whistle. David and Greg, two of Chris’ roommates and friends of Jeff, come down and start playing bass and guitar with them. They play “Lukey’s Boat,” among other songs.

Fall 2009 - The band slowly grows their repertoire, adding Chris Jasinski and Matt Torcellini to play spoons and bodhrán.

The band started playing gigs in the winter of 2009, playing at Catcher’s Sports Bar in Wethersfield, CT, The Buttonwood Tree in Middletown, CT and various smaller events around the Hartt campus. After the summer of 2010, the band (with the help of their friend Parker Hu) created a website and, with the help of Jolly Roadie/Sound man Jake Subin, recorded their first record on October 9-11, 2010.

The record features the band at its most spirited and its most somber. It opens with “The Night That Paddy Murphy Died,” an uplifting and comical spin on the death of a (fictional) close friend. The record progresses with the classic Celtic folk tune, “Molly Malone,” a more quiet take on the death of a woman.

The band felt obligated to include their arrangement of “The Gypsy Rover” on the record, feeling that the traditional upbeat feel to most performances of the song didn’t do the story justice. The Beggars’ arrangement is a more subdued ballad, featuring Chris singing, four part harmonies, and Jeff’s intricate guitar picking.

The record contains a set of instrumentals which the band has entitled, “Laverne’s Wedding,” featuring Christopher on tin whistle and Greg on tenor banjo. Jeff set his own chord progression to three traditional jigs and reels (“Bridal Jig,” “The Joy of My Life,” and “Kiss the Bride”) and the band rocks through them, adding their own musical tastes to the traditional tunes.

After ten songs about drinking, death, joy and sadness, the record concludes with Jeff’s beautiful, Beatles-inspired arrangement of “Danny Boy.” The song holds great sentiment to Jeff and his family, and every performance of his arrangement displays that. Jeff acknowledges the chord structure was inspired by “Blackbird,” by Paul McCartney, but the picking pattern, the key, and the lyric structure of the Celtic air give the music new light and make for a fitting close to the record. The take on the record was the first take he performed in the studio – perfect right away.

The record’s title, “Sunshine and Shadow,” comes from a line in this song. The band felt it was an accurate representation of their repertoire – songs of joy and songs of sadness, sometimes mixed together, but always with some positive and uplifting spin, even if the only positive spin is taken in the careful arrangement of melody, harmonies, and instrumentation.

The record is available on The Jolly Beggars’ website and at any gig! They play regularly throughout the northeast.

Photos by Steph Crandall & Erin Paul

Video

The Jolly Beggars’ Submission to Folger’s 2011 Jingle Contest

In the studio.

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The recent hit blockbuster, Inception, features music by the brilliant composer Hans Zimmer. Listening to this makes me feel like my reality is collapsing. Delicious.

The Village

A terrifyingly beautiful piece by James Newton Howard. Very inspiring.

Avatar

I like to run to this soundtrack. Then I usually come home and have a new idea that I’m excited about for weeks. You should try it. The moment at 0:51 blows my mind.

The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford

Please listen to the whole thing. This kills me it’s so gorgeous.

Batman Begins

Insane collaboration between Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard.

Battlestar Galactica

I may be a nerd, but try and argue with me on this.

Band Of Brothers

I don’t know who Michael Kamen is, but this is incredible. Very old-fashioned, but so good… (the part at around 5:15 gets me every time)

Pearl Harbor

Didn’t care for the movie when it came out, but the soundtrack is to die for.

American History X

I wonder if this will ever stop haunting me.

Transformers

Just wait for the theme at 2:30. *drool*

The Last Samurai

This one always pumps me up. This was all I listened to when I sailed through the British Virgin Islands. Amazing.

Serenity

There’s something about this that’s magical. My chest imploded when I first heard this in the theatre.

Madagascar

No, I’m not kidding. This track is DOPE!

No related posts.

Since I Left New Orleans

01 Since I Left New Orleans Rough 3

My Own Berlin

01 My Own Berlin Rough 3

House of Cards

01 House Of Cards Rough 2

Alone Tonight

01 Alone Tonight

Support her on INDIEgogo
Listen to her on MySpace
Watch her on YouTube
Be a fan on Facebook

Feature by
Chris Collins
Curator

Liked Callison? You might also like Chris Greenwood!

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How do you feel about the concept of fame and how it could change your personal life?

Fame is such a strange concept and it’s something that is almost unavoidable when you get to a certain point in music. Ideally, I would love to have my music be the thing that becomes famous instead of me becoming famous. I want to be able go places and live life and write songs and not be under the eye of a camera. Thankfully, that’s the way my life is at the moment.

What emotion inspires your writing most often? Why?

I guess the emotion that inspires me most is not a specific “happy” or “sad” but a kind of “press at your heart” emotion….which can mean a burdensome weight, or a light joyful feeling, sorrow, anger, regret or hope. When I’m starting to write a song, I know it’s a song I’m gonna want to keep if I get that “press on the heart” feeling. It needs to move me first if it’s ever going to reach anybody else.

Has your music career altered your personal relationships? If so, how?

I’m on a very different path than most of my friends. My friends are in college studying for exams and writing essays and I’m making albums. Sometimes its hard to keep in touch when everybody is in different places all over the world. I wish I was better at it. But I always believe that with your best friends, even if you’ve been apart for many days, or months, or years, when you reunite it feels like it always did.

What was the most crucial factor that lead to you to deciding to leave college in pursuit of music? What was the hardest thing to leave behind?

During the first semester of college I was doing a lot of songwriting and recording. There was a lot happening around the movie that I had written 2 songs for “The Women”. At the same time, I had 10 page essays and reading to do and it didn’t feel like I could fully devote myself to music while at school–when music was in fact what I truly wanted to be doing. I think the hardest thing to leave behind was that feeling of being a kid. Because as much as you’d like to think of yourself as a sophisticated adult when you are at college, you are still a ways away from living in the “real world” and having a career.

Aside from music, is there anything else you are hoping to accomplish in the future that perhaps you had to put aside for the time being?

I don’t know if its an accomplishment per say, but I really want a dog. A cute one. It’s hard to adopt an animal when there’s always the possibility that you might be on the road for a while…..but that’s why I’m going to train my dog to play the tambourine and sing backup and then I can take him on the road with me.

Are there any opportunities or experiences that you were able to take advantage of because of your music? Why was this significant?

I’ve gotten to collaborate with so many artists that I admire. I’ve recently recorded with Landon Pigg and Aqualung and John Doe…all incredible musicians. I am also a huge fan of the show “So You Think You Can Dance” and I’ve always dreamed of working with the choreographer Sonya Tayeh. So I came up with this crazy scheme that I was gonna do a music video for “Graveyard” and write to her and ask her to choreograph it. And she said yes! The video is not out yet, but I’m really excited for people to see it!

What would you say is most unique to your personal style as a musician? Why?

Well, I guess this isn’t quite my style…yet….but I’ve been thinking of getting bright red streaks in my hair. Never too late for some good-old-fashioned teenage rebellion, eh?

What are you hoping to achieve as a musician and how does this motivate you?

I want to continue to grow as an artist and songwriter. I hope that my most recent album will always be my favorite. And hopefully, more and more people will know my music.

Is there any moment that stands out in your mind as the most pivotal turning point in your music career? How did you change as a person?

A pivotal moment was performing “Darling I Do” (the song I wrote with Landon Pigg for Shrek 4) on Jay Leno. That’s was definitely a surreal moment going home and watching myself play music on the TV. But you celebrate it, and the next day comes and it’s really no different. I’m still moving forward, trying to make music and have it be heard, I’m just one step closer.

Lucy on Jay Leno

Gravity – Music Video

Links

• MySpace
• Facebook
• iTunes

Interview by:
Tessa Abrahams
LA/NYC Editor

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