9.01.2011

in situ

More than 30 years ago, I began this portrait of a beautiful friend of mine in her beautiful Upper West Side apartment. I realized after a time when life intervened—job, marriage—that I was never going to finish it, so I took the canvas off the stretchers, cut it down and put it on this crooked one. My friend didn't like the picture much at the time; it made her look old. Now we both are, and she likes it better. She is contemplating framing and hanging it near the very couch she posed on.

9 comments:

  1. I love hanging pictures in the locations in which they are set, or in proximity to the things that are depicted. I once wrote a proposal (unsuccessful) to an alternative gallery here in SF to do a whole installation of pictures in the recreated locations in which they were painted.

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  2. I wish I had photographed her sitting in the couch, too.

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  3. The sitter said:
    Come back and shoot me on the couch.

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  4. You're friends with Disnay's Pocahontas?

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  5. wonderful portrait ....love the cutains alot...head is great...what did you cut off?

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  6. It was rectangular the long way—so body, couch cushions, floor. I had started from the top down!

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  7. me thinks the lady doth not paint enough...

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  8. Ah, but you think that about everyone!

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