Though I am in the midst of a research paper about figurative painting and race and while I am also thinking of putting the paints away for a while and working with pen, ink, and brush, I am still keeping steady sitting appointments. My latest sitting (done this past Tuesday) is a local entertainer named Jeannie Sol who, I learned Tuesday, is also a santera. When she came to sit for me, we talked as usual but our conversation was peppered with Jeannie needing to discuss my partner Chris (who she never met, but we were using his apartment for the sitting). The spirit who walks with Jeannie had a lot to say about Chris; '“He’s a good boy”, was a frequent refrain.
Currently, I am tasked through my MFA program at Transart to transcend the limitations I have put on myself: those limits being—portrait painting. But it felt good to go back. The conversation, the nerves, the quick decision making, the clean beginning and the messy end.
