Portrait of The Artist as an Old Dude

 Well, this is how it turned out.

There are a couple of "backstory bits" I want to share: 

First, Da Vinci was renowned - some would say infamous - for leaving paintings "unfinished." He carried the Mona Lisa with him all his life, some say because he never thought it "finished." He would leave other commissions with some figures still in outlines. Friendlier explanations are that his restless genius called him to other tasks. An explanation that I prefer is "a painting is finished when the artist says it is finished." So . . . Old Dude is finished. Which in some ways tries to explain all the white left in the image. First, it seems that none of the colors were crying out to have another color right up next to them. Second, I began to think of white as a color in its own right, and not just an empty space that needed to be filled. And when I sat back and squinted my eyes, trying to imagine all the white painted in, the image began to fell claustrophobic. Maybe it was the slightly weird experience of staring at myself. Anyhow, as I said, the Old Dude is finished.

Second, I always listen to music when I am working on an image. Usually some mix of an artist - Lightfoot, Dylan, Judy Collins, Joni Mitchel, The Beatles - or decade 60s, 70s - music from the Old Dude's salad days. So you would think they would be perfect for working on this image. Think again grasshopper.

For the last several months I have been immersed in Estelle Ryan's Genevieve Lenard series. I am on book 14, and so obviously recommend the series. Take a look - each book is called The Something Connection in which "something" is the name of an artist whose works play a role in the plot. I will refrain from a more thorough explication, and skip to the aspect that plays a role in this image.

Genevieve, the narrator voice and primary protagonist, is on the spectrum. Her special autistic skill is interpreting non-verbal communication. She can sense moods by close observation of non-verbal cues and, most germane to many plot lines, tell whether someone is lying. However, when overwhelmed by stimuli from the "neurotypical world" she can be driven to a "shutdown" rendering her unconscious. She can fight off these shutdowns by - and this is the important part - writing, listening to, physically or in her head, the music of Mozart.

I'm assuming you may have seen this coming, but the Old Dude image has sprung to life exclusively while listening to Mozart. Delightful. I suggest you give that other old dude a listen.

*A hint, or reminder: Unless you are looking at the images on a giii-nornous screen, you are seeing the images smaller than intended. On most platforms, phones, tablets, etc. you can click on the image and it will pop out onto a new screen and you can pinch and pull the image to get a better idea of how it looks "in real life." Which in this case is 12"x18".