This portrait is of artist Sara Molano, and I painted it for this site's 2008 Portrait Swap.

I gave it the name Haruyo, meaning "warm world" (Japanese in origin). Sara hopes to be traveling to Japan in the near future to see her art exhibited there. She sees a lot of foreign soil in her travels, and hopes to continue these travels to distant lands, so by giving her this name I am wishing her a warm welcome wherever she goes in the world.

When I received Sara's email saying she would swap with me, it was the first "swap" for me on EBSQ and I was already excited about participating. When I received Sara's photos and story, I was ten times more excited about painting.

And then I was humbled. Hollywood's scripts and actresses couldn't have provided me with a model who would've topped Sara's photos and emails. She is a belly dancer and a gypsy at heart (sometimes in real life). She writes of dancing under moonlight to drums, her travels, her life in Miami away from family, the beach, her cat.....

Quickly, my problem became making all of my ideas cooperate and compromise with each other so I could have one single piece; a collage of what pictures floated around in my mind. In the end, the hand of a dancer provided both cymbals and a full moon to dance underneath. If Sara is happy as well, I'll be tickled.

Taking this opportunity challenged me and made me a better artist than I was a week ago. I love that about painting. I love that about EBSQ. Sara, thank you for spotting my plea for a partner on the message board and emailing me. Please consider me a new friend in one of many countries! Monica Faith

(Update):

I was tickled pink when I saw Sara's portrait of me shortly after loading this one, and brought everyone in the house to the office to show them her art. I went to send her an email to thank her for such a beautiful gift, and I was again humbled when I saw I'd already received one from her with the same thing on her mind. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO KEEPS EBSQ RUNNING LIKE A WELL-OILED MACHINE!! I've enjoyed this so very, very much.... especially meeting a sister artist such as Sara!