Pinterest suggested to me a slew of self-portraits by Egon Schiele. His work has always had a visceral effect on me; simultaneously titilating and disturbing. I’ve read a little on his motivations and still feel that he was offering his own explanations to further instigate reactions. He was a shit disturber, for sure! However, there is so much life in the distorted decay of his works. His faces and figures contorted in. pain and rapture keep our eyes on the work and drive our imaginations to fantasies we are uncertain we should share out loud.
I believe we see something of ourselves in the paintings we enjoy and I love the intellectual challenge of figuring out what of myself resides in the images I enjoy the most. Shiele’s work triggers feelings more than most and the self-portraits I saw got me wondering what in his face reveals his supposed madness and/or genius? Then I wanted to see if I could find a little of the same in my own self-portrait.
The only question that remains to me after drawing this is partly in its title and further in the question, how or why is this me?
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