Does art mask or reveal the true face?

What is a mask? Literally and figuratively. Do creative pursuits construct a truer self? Or do they allow for a mask to be constructed? Or perhaps another persona? What is a mask? Masks that we can see. Masks that are hidden. A mask conceals important parts that we rely on in order to identify a person from the outside. The mask hides the face but creates a new face. Recognizability is both obscured but renewed. A mask is like a key into another portal of a persona. A foundation for presenting another persona. A transformative device for understanding who someone is. Identity isn’t it necessarily it. Outside and inside might not always coincide. The features of the face converge into a whole. No particular part is more important. But once a significant portion is covered up, the recognition of the whole becomes difficult. What is a face? Explored as a portrait painter. A technique is a way for the artist to make what they’re trying to do accessible to themselves. It’s almost the opposite of what a mask is. My technique to convey the face is to start with the nose because it helps me to triangulate the face. A face is: the features converging within the margin just enough to convey a recognizability. The mask then is a cover up in part or whole of a recognizable form of communication. Well then what is the possibility for the individual to become a truer or more masked self via creative production?