Life Painting/ Heartbreak. Oil on Paper. 23 by 16.5 inches.

Our model, David, struggles to find a pose and hold it. I am equally exhausted and distracted. I prefer painting alone, in silence. Working beside me while listening to loud music, there seems to be something wrong with my neighbor’s headphones.

I start with an abstract: eyes, sharp outlines, a single, simple hand. The realistic painting of David does not work as well. By the session’s end, I’m hurrying to add finishing touches to something that barely works. Afterwards, a few of my peers quiz David about his lack of energy. He thinks it’s more spiritual than physical: he’s broken up with his girlfriend. She’s moving out.

I am once again struck by the fragility and non-solidity of our physical form, the transformations we go through, good and bad, at the mercy of life’s vicissitudes.

In the end, it’s the abstract that best communicates what David seems to be today: fragmented, scared, broken.