Complicated Shadows

Another portrait of my cousin Keith Knost , made from another old photograph while listening to a new CD - a great mix put together by my daughter-in-law, Tracey, for my birthday, which includes this...

A Day's Work

I worked all day in my kitchen on this portrait from a photograph of my cousin Keith as a young man. I have never met him - he is my second cousin and lives in New Jersey. We have corresponded through Facebook.

I set up my laptop with the digital photo of Keith to look at and work from.

I was listening to a mix of music and Radiohead's Lucky came on with the line, pull me out of the plane crash, pull me out of the lake. I had to write some of it.

Keith was in a bad car accident in 2001 and is now paralyzed from the chest down. He is in his late 40's and is wheelchair bound. This picture of him as a beautiful young art student at Cooper Union in the 80's is so moving. It just slays me.

I want to do a full length portrait. I thought I'd see how it feels to work from a photograph and decided to just do a study of the head as a warm up.

I must admit that I cried alot while working on this...

Keith's story reminds me of my daughter's. Life can change so drastically, so fast.