Self-Portrait (No.18) 1983

This is Ivan Albright’s Self-Portrait (No.18) from 1983, made with colored pencil. It's not about perfection, right? More like a record of looking and feeling. I get the sense Albright wasn’t trying to hide anything. The marks are all there, exposed, raw. This is drawing as thinking, as a process. Look at how the colors bleed into each other, like thoughts colliding. And the way he renders his own face—it's not about vanity, but vulnerability. He’s really showing us what it feels like to be alive, to age, to be aware of our own mortality. There's something really beautiful in its honesty. Albright reminds me of other artists, like Alice Neel, who are interested in the psychology of portraiture. They’re not just painting faces, but revealing something deeper about the human condition. Ultimately, this piece shows how art is an ongoing conversation about what it means to be human.