three letter word for art

Linda got me a Lamy Safari fountain pen for Christmas. This is my first drawing, looking all artificially earnest and introspective.

We have mostly stationary mirrors in the house, except for a tall skinny one that I have to drag out of the bathroom for self-portrait sketches like this: So I finally went and bought a $5 small mirror at Target and did this self-portrait last night while Linda watched "Cold Case Files."

I've done a few, so I'm no longer keeping track.  I feel like my face looks a bit squashed in this one.

Done late one evening after too much internet time.  These perspectives always make the living room seem much larger than it really is.

Something I've come back to repeatedly in my drawing and painting is the self-portrait, and I am certainly not alone among artists when it comes to autoritratti.   I think about this ritual a lot.  Why a "self" portrait?  Maybe the answers are obvious-- I'm a free (or at least cheap) and always available model.  I (possibly like most artists) am obsessively self-absorbed.  Am I a narcissist, or do I just want to know more about me?  I hope the answer is the latter, but always fear it's the former.  I don't like the way I look, but maybe it's that I like that I don't like the way I look, so I do  like the way I look.  (Critical thinking starts to fold in on itself here, and I often find myself getting nowhere).    Because I use a mirror to do self-portraits most of the time, my process is often present in the work-- a glimpse of a sketchbook, the scrutinizing posture, etc.  This contextualizes the portrait as a part of art-making--is it me, or is it ...