Having explored the faces of many earthly personalities, I decided that I must go the other direction. I wanted to paint a saint and give her my face. So I did. First I had to describe serenity, and then I had to have the model looking up to the sky. Would it work? Could it…

Today my model humored me, she put on huge hoop earrings, hoping to fulfill the prophecy of her grandmother Maddalena, uttered 50 years ago. “You look like a gypsy!” As a gypsy, she told me, in accented English, that maybe it looks like her life is good, all she has to do is read palms…

Totally emboldened by my artist friend’s words, I realized that my new model (me) was not going to get upset if I played a little bit with her face and created new people using her bones as my support. Who is that person in the picture? She really is a stranger, but in a funny…

Defining where I am as an artist, I must tell you that I have been frustrated lately with my paintings. A fellow artist suggested that I do self portraits. I easily blew off that suggestion, “sorry, I don’t like standing in the bathroom for hours painting.” And then I realized what I’d done, once again,…