Damian Michaels is an American artist, writer, curator and publisher who has lived in Melbourne since 1994. His work is part of the outsider art movement. Outsider art is a label created by French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe art created outside the boundaries of official culture. Often, outsider art illustrates extreme mental states, unconventional ideas, or elaborate fantasy worlds. Damian sees his art as spiritual, psychological and an emotional mirror to the collective consciousness. His art is revelatory and message-laden but that message is for the viewer to interpret. It is not prescribed by the artist. This altered photobooth self-portrait is part of a series of works Damian has done using photographs old and new, as his canvas. Apart from loving this as the only piece of photobooth art I have in my collection, I enjoy its movement and humour. For me, it is an appropriate self-portrait of a man with a creative spirit and an apparently great sense of fun. To see more of his work and read more about him, follow the links below.

• At Raw Vision, Colin Rhodes writes about Damian's underlying creative processes.
• Damian's Flickr Photostream where you can see more of his altered photos and other works.
• His facebook page
• and Damian's website where you can buy copies of his publication Art Visionary magazine