The Negotiation

This portrait came to me in a flash, which I then had to chase throughout the painting process. The spiral abstraction was there, fully formed in my mind’s eye, but the painting didn’t settle into a compelling story until I arrived at the correct facial expression. I aimed to imbue her eyes with a sense of calm, trust and even love, giving the abstracted anatomies a new ambiguity. Are they a threat? Or are they an invitation? That’s how I arrived at the title, “The Negotiation.”