This particular painting I began (and abandoned) in June 2007. I saw this woman many years ago around my town and was struck by her pretty and unusual looks and I thought I’d like to do a portrait of her. A few years later, our children ended up at the same preschool and we became friends. She posed for me and I did some drawings, but was completely frustrated because I just couldn’t get them right. A year ago I decided to try again and asked her to sit for some photos and chose a profile shot to work from. I hadn’t seen her in a while when I started work on this portrait. I was feeling pretty proud of my ability to get it right this time when I decided to take a break and go to the store. There she was at the store wearing the exact same blue shirt and while we chatted, I thought, “forget it, I got it all wrong, the painting stinks.” I haven’t touched it since. The likeness isn’t so off, it’s just there’s something indefinable missing. She has this easy laugh and great vivacious spirit, but since I usually paint pretty somber portraits, I realized I’d have to paint a completely different kind of portrait to truly get it right.