Reification Strategy

I've been spending studio time the last few years trying to figure out painting.

Oil on linen. Approximately 36"x24". As someone who feels compelled to paint representationally in the 21st century, it modes of representation sometimes rear their heads in my thinking. So in this self-portrait I set up a triangle of direct observation (self-portrait), photography as mimesis (the trompe l'oeil photo of my deceased father) and mechanical reproduction of an image originally made as a painting of a directly observed object (print of one of Rembrandt's late self-portraits). Every time I paint representationally I struggle with the problem of this old technology and how can it carry meaning in a way that is physically embodied in the paint.
And of course I still struggle mightily with technical issues, trying to have some kind of compelling surface emerge.