Girl Without Pearl Earring

How Portraits make a difference:

Portraits, by their nature are a visual document. They can record history and have been used that way for centuries. But they also create mythology and tell stories. Ultimately they fall into the category of an ‘emotional truth.’  Characters within a mythology, like Gandolf or Merlin (in his many literary incarnations), stand for ideas and hope that lead us through the darkness of the stories as we read or watch them. 

My own portraits cross between both worlds – that of literature and that of real life because some are based on specific individuals and are historical in nature. But the stylistic way that I paint people places them in the world more literary or fictitious in nature. Girl Without a Pearl Earring, for example, is based on more than one person and is technically made up. She is a character in a work of fiction I am writing.