Self-Portrait: Mouths

My previous Afrikaans post concerned the topic of self-portraits. In it I argued that the artist's self-portraits are not by default acts of exhibitionism nor narcissism. For the former the primary audience is someone else. This is not the case with a self-portrait where the primary audience is the self. For the narcissist the primary audience is also the self, but the narcissist derives not his chief pleasure from the process of making the self-portrait. A narcissist is equally satisfied with looking at his reflection. For the artist, however, the creative process of making the self-portrait is the chief enjoyment. Looking at and enjoying the resultant artwork is valued higher than the self-in-the-artwork.

The post also made me realize that it has been a very long time (probably a year) since I took some self-portraits. I have some new material (i.e. clothes I bought in Thailand) that I'll have to try out soon. But for now, here is a couplet of (skew) mouths.