Artwork / 2010 / Michèle

This portrait is more than a face: it also contains compositional elements drawn from stories which Michèle told me during the course of our interview—a something extra in the commission process. I don’t always work these kinds of elements into my paintings, but when I do I find it both challenging and rewarding. I first experimented with this sort of painting in 2006 for Swollen, but I don’t think I fully embraced it until I created my half of this diptych in 2009. Eight years later, I made this portrait of one of my personal heroes that includes text as well as narrative imagery.