2022

I wanted to make a portrait of my father, who is turning 85 soon, for myself, for coming to grips with his mortality. When I visit him, I notice physical changes in his body: He’s thin and getting thinner, his shoulders a bit more hunched each year. In taking a photo of him and then doing this painting, I of course discovered that his face has changed as well. It is deeply and permanently etched with creases. He doesn’t have eyebrows anymore. His hair is mostly white except for one patch of dark black on the left side. And his neck! It has canyons of flesh I’d not paid attention to. Even though making the portrait made me see how he has aged, doing it still made me feel closer to him.