My very own portrait

Y’all, this is awesome.

A couple of months ago I entertained the idea of getting my portrait painted by an old friend/artist in Chattanooga. He was gathering subjects for an upcoming collection and I thought it would be a great privilege to be a part of it. Rarely do I have my photo taken since I’m usually on the other end of the camera, not to mention I’m typically not happy with the results. Ultra critical = really annoying. But a painting? That’s different.

I agreed to do the portrait for a couple of reasons. First, it’s totally cool. You know it is. Have you ever been painted? I haven’t. I had no plans to be. I’ve never even considered it. But there was the opportunity in my lap and I would’ve been a fool to pass it up.

Secondly, as a rule, creative people should always support other creative people. I don’t paint, but I know what it’s like to create something from scratch and hope against hope that someone finds value in it. I know what it’s like to pour my soul into something abstract, something uniquely my own, and wonder if it would ever be noticed. I don’t have to be a painter to understand Caleb’s passion. I get it, and therefore I support it.

So, we settled on a day and time for me to sit in his studio for a few hours. I wasn’t sure what the end result would be, but I knew I’d love it.

This was the portrait after about 45 minutes:

And this was the portrait after about two and a half hours:

The lighting was not favorable for the entire sitting, so Caleb snapped my photo to paint from later, which gave us an opportunity to look through his previous work and talk about his journey from school to work to full-time artist.

It’s been several weeks since that sitting, and I’ve been chomping at the bit to see the final work. On Friday I drove to Chattanooga for the opening and grabbed Amy and Karin as dates. I tried to be all casual upon walking into the exhibit, like I’ve done this sort of thing before, but I really wanted to shove my way through the crowd and find the painting. I stayed cool on the outside while imploding on the inside.

There I am, bottom row, second from the left.

It’s perfect. No, really. It’s just so lovely. It’s light years better than any photograph I’ve ever taken, Photoshopped and not. After it’s been on display for a month, I’m taking this gorgeous thing home.

See? Dorky photo, gorgeous painting. LOVE.

Then we celebrated.

Thank you, Caleb. Thank you, thank you. You are brilliant.