3:38 PM: today i had to divide my time between editing footage i shot of the kids' showcase in edwards and continuing work on gaze 34. the image for now is a young, beautiful kurdish woman who was martyred as a YPJ fighter recently.
you will notice immediately that i'm taking a very different approach with this one. i made a monochromatic underpainting, both for the face and her head scarf; something i used to do during my greek period. this technique is one used by byzantine icon painters and passed on to me by my mentor, yannis tsarouchis. i felt the need, once i saw this young woman's extraordinary visage, to return to this technique. we'll be away for a while, but when we're back i'll begin painting into these earth tones and see how it evolves. tsarouchis said that what would get him through all the various stages of making a painting was the deep feeling he had for the subject. i feel that for this woman.