Jay DeFeo, The Eyes, 1958

Mark Joshua Epstein: We’re looking at a piece by Jay DeFeo called The Eyes, and I'm wondering, what do you notice about this art work?

Student 1: To make it just the eyes they kind of blur out everything—like everything even close to the eyes.

Student 2: I noticed that in the middle, like where the nose should be, it’s just kind of like almost, it reminds me of slices almost.

Student 3: It looks like it is just staring right at you.

Mark Joshua Epstein: Jay DeFeo was looking at a photograph of her own eyes—the artist was looking at a photograph of her own eyes when she made this artwork and I'm wondering, do you think it counts as a self-portrait even though it’s just her eyes?

Student 1: I think it does count because even though it doesn’t show your entire whole face, the eyes sort of convey a lot.

Student 2: Maybe she is looking at sadness or something, because sometimes people would compare sadness to something being cracked or broken, so she could be looking at something sad.

Student 3: I think that sometimes like a photograph looks very real, but sometimes if something is not super realistic, or if it’s kind of realistic with a little bit of something like a twist, it gives you more to think about.