Self Portrait 1979

Petros Malayan made this self-portrait with watercolors sometime during his lifetime. I wonder what it must have been like for Malayan, studying his own face so intently, trying to capture his likeness with fluid, unpredictable strokes. See how the blues and greens of the background melt into grays and browns around his face. The paint is so thin here it's like he's barely there, a ghost in his own portrait. And the colors are really working here! That thick brushstroke defining the shadow on the side of his nose says everything. You get a sense of him, the artist, in that single stroke: a little bold, a little melancholy. Making a portrait is a real act of looking, and maybe of finding yourself in the process too. It is through this ongoing exchange that we are encouraged to find multiple interpretations.