Dorion's neo-classical arrangement presents the artist as an allegorical figure rather than as a particular individual. Here, in a shallow, stage-like space, he is classically posed as a thinking man surrounded by certain "tools" of his trade that are used to create meaning (a pedestal and a blank picture plane). This series of self-portraits combines opposing painting traditions (representation and abstraction) in order to point to the artist's task of assembling meaning.
