So I had a great time talking with, and painting, Tyler. Tyler is a graduate of the Tyler School of Art at Temple University. I get the sense from talking with him, that Tyler doesn’t have a plan B when it comes to his art career, which, if I had to bet, tells me he’s going to be very good at it for a long time to come.
So another thought of mine for this project is something called the lagniappe — that’s a Cajun word that means a little something extra that someone does not expect. In my case, the lagniappe is me doing a portrait of someone else for free, but in Tyler’s case, it was him doing my portrait for free, without me even knowing it. When I finished painting him, he asked me for a pen as I went about some busywork for about 2 minutes. It was then that I realized he was sketching me and I asked him if I should stay still. He said no and he handed me a fantastic portrait of me that he sketched on the back of his business card. I absolutely love it.
At the Cherry Street Pier, we’re encouraged to make portrait swaping an element of this exhibition so keep listening ‘til the end of this audio tour and find out details about our portrait party that we’ll be hosting at the Pier on Sunday, September 15th.