Self....
The self.... Painters have always wrestled with the idea of the self... Who are we? What do we express? Represent?.
Painting like literature cannot but help contain a psychological aspect, a trace of the inner workings of the mind that made it. Even if we choose as an artist to try to remove as much of the psychological imprint as we can in order to make our work more palatable for contemporary tastes.
We have to remember in a world dominated by the findings and implementation of theories, ideas discovered through psychological research that Literature, Visual art, Music paved the way for the psychological discoveries to be made manifest.
Why make images of the self if not to try and grapple with both the representational and inner workings of the self? I feel the contemporary artist is compelled also to look in the mirror. I am fascinated by the works of Rembrandt, Beckmann, Picasso and Bacon.