Knowing Me, Knowing You

At the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, there was an interesting exhibit:  Two artists -- husband and wife -- each painted a portrait of themselves and a portrait of each other.  The paintings by the spouses are rather different from the artists' self-portraits.

"How come?" some viewers wonder.  "So which one is a true representation of them?"

At first glance, the result seem strange.  Yet, it makes sense if you think about the fact that the artists paint their spouses based on what they see from the outside, whereas when they painted themselves, they see themselves from the inside.  The different perspectives give rise to very different views.

All our lives, we try so hard to explain our thoughts and feelings to others.  We yearn to be understood.  At the same time, however, we want to keep certain things to ourselves.  Things that only we know.  To balance these conflicting desires, everybody runs a full time PR campaign to promote an image of ourselves.  "Look, this is me!" we tell the world.  Just like a painting, it contains elements of truth plus plenty of embellishment.  

Unfortunately, people are not very self-contained selves.  We leak.  As beautiful as our carefully crafted public image might be, life reveals aspects that we leave out in our PR campaign.  We may not even be aware of it, but observant people notice.  They see what we do not see.

"What if they are asked to paint a portrait of themselves based on how they think other people see them?  Would the result be different again?"  I ponder.

It is interesting that the exhibit did not include photos of the artists.  

"Do the artists actually look like either of the images in the pair of portraits?" I cannot help wondering.  

Since they are based on two people's realities, I don't even know if either one of the painting is a more valid representation of the subject. than the other  Maybe the better picture is a combination of the two so as to capture both perspectives.  

"What if we have a third person to paint their portraits to add yet another perspective?" my overthinking brain suggested.  

It must be time to watch the movie Rashomon again . . .