Self-Portrait c. 1970s

Leland Bell created this self-portrait with what looks like sanguine and black chalk on paper. The strokes are immediate, searching, as if he's trying to pin down not just his likeness, but something deeper. You know, that's how it feels when you are trying to make something, right? I love how the red chalk gives his face a warm, almost feverish quality. There's this triangle on his face, a shadow maybe, or a trick of the light, that feels like a little formal dare. It pulls you in, makes you wonder about the geometry hidden in plain sight. The texture is raw, exposed, like a sketch of a thought more than a finished portrait. It reminds me a bit of some of those quick, probing portraits by Giacometti, where the artist seems to be wrestling with the very act of seeing. It’s a conversation, really, across time and mediums, about how we see ourselves and each other. A conversation with no easy answers, thankfully.