When I was in high school, I had the privilege of meeting and interacting with a number of foreign exchange students who would, for whatever reason, come to our little hamlet in southeastern Minnesota, through the school's exchange program. I got the know one cool Frenchman named Romain (even if he does love RHCP), and many more. One of those students, someone I consider a friend even though we haven't seen each other face to face in decades, is my friend Olga. Olga turned 40 this past Thursday. Olga is Ukrainian and, as a Ukrainian living in the Ukraine at this point in history, means she might not be having the best of all possible birthdays.
I don't paint portraits for a number of reasons, but I wanted to do something for Olga beyond a social media shout out. This is what I did. Looking at it, you can probably discern why I don't paint people from photographic sources very often. Be that as it may, this is what I painted for Olga.
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| Olga (R) and I (L) in May of 1999. |
Above you can see both Olga and I avoiding the eye of the camera, for whatever reason, in May of 1999. This would have been the celebration for my 18th birthday. As for the hats being spun around backwards – what can I say, the past is a different country, people do things differently there. I've learned from my mistakes and now, when I wear one at all, I wear it properly.
