ALWAYS BECOMING

OWEN, BECOMING oil on canvas 12 x 12" commission

At our house, there was always some question about just when does someone leave boyhood or girlhood behind, and who decides when that is. Being a former editor, I always envision that step into man- or womanhood as the attainment of one’s capital letter: achieving upper case status and becoming He or She.

A while back, when they were 15 or 16, I did portrait series of both my children, spreading my wings by painting the same pose over and over in various ways. One of those ways was using the ancient method of painting the skin tones green first, then glazing over that with thin layers of flesh tones. Look at Byzantine or medieval paintings, in which the skin tones have worn away over the centuries, and the green underpainting is left—it seems to have been an era of Frog People, but rest assured, it was merely a technique to get lively flesh tones. I posted my favorite of these, my daughter painted in complementary colors--which also meant just the green undertones of the skin; one of my Facebook friends saw it and asked me to paint her son that way. She saw it as an indicator that we are all works in progress, ever unfinished, always becoming.

So, here is Owen, who is 16 and definitely on the road to getting both his capital H and man status, albeit no flesh tones. Someday, if he or his mother want me to, I would be happy to “flesh out” (so to speak) the portrait, but I hope they choose to keep it as it is. I love the concept of the unfinishedness that is the human condition, especially at the transition time of adolescence. So thank you, Jan, for adding that bit of insight into the painting process.

And thank you, Owen, for being a good model and politely putting up with my requests to tilt your head or smile just so to showcase those dimples of yours. Meanwhile, keep right on becoming. Call when your h becomes an H, will you?

COMPLEMENT oil on canvas 10 x 8"

Detail from The Annunciation by Andrei Rublev (1405)