Ersatz, a 12 by 14 inch Acrylic on Canvas painting, is a self portrait of the artist. The title stems from the word 'ersatz' meaning a poor quality replication of something. Since the painting isn't a completely accurate depiction of the artist, it can be said that it is akin to the artist looking at a mirror, perhaps a distorted one, in this case, an ersatz mirror.

In doing this self-portrait, the artist primarily aimed to capture an impressionistic style with his brush strokes, seeing as it is the artist's favorite art movement, marveling over the work of Impressionist painters such as Monet and Renoir, he aimed to paint his self-portrait in a similar style. Despite the inspiration however, the artist wasn't able to properly execute an impressionist-styled self-portrait.

This painting was done at the expanse of the artist having been exhausted of what options left he has to paint. He resorted to eventually just do a self-portrait, taking inspiration from the quote "believe in yourself before they believe in you", a fitting theme  when it comes to an exploratory piece focusing on a self-portrait.

Ersatz aims to show viewers that perfection isn't easily achieved and that it will take years to master one's craft, having pitfalls along the way and that no artwork will instantaneously look like a perfect visual representation of what the artist is trying to imitate.

The painting itself also shows that people see themselves differently. One may view themselves in a specific way as compared to how another person might, and that while a person may not be conventionally beautiful to others, they may still be beautiful to themselves. Much like this painting; despite not being an accurate depiction of the artist, (an ersatz reflection, if you may), or not being a conventionally amazing self-portrait, to the artist, the painting still looks good. And that is how we should always see ourselves. Through our own eyes and not through others'.