Self-Portrait c. 1970s

Leland Bell made this self-portrait on paper with sanguine and black chalk, and right away, I can see a person trying to figure themselves out. The marks are searching, aren’t they? The tones of red and grey are layered to create a likeness, but for me, it’s not really about that. Look at the way the lines around the eye are drawn with such care, and then how they give way to a flurry of scribbled marks across the brow, and up into the hair. I wonder what he was thinking about. I can imagine Leland Bell in the act of drawing this, looking in the mirror, then at the page, maybe squinting, trying again and again. A line here, another there, not quite right, until a kind of truth emerges. I can imagine him thinking about other artists who also tried to capture likeness, like Alice Neel, who he knew. All artists are always looking at other artists, borrowing ideas from one another like a never-ending conversation. But in the end, we are all just trying to find our way, aren’t we?