Blue HairRiae

The fourth canvas I painted of Riae, and the one that took longest.

four weeks on what she kneels on.

Most of this canvas is not her. It is what she is kneeling on, and I could not tell you why that had to take four weeks.

Something in her face shifted while I was working and I did not notice until I was nearly done. I left it exactly as it was. It is the reason the painting stopped when it did.

What do you do with it?

Inspired by a photograph of Riae Suicide (@riae_). One of five canvases of Riae. What the painting makes of it is my doing, not hers. Part of Painted Idols.

The photograph this came from was made to be forgotten. This canvas was not. It took weeks, and it will hang on a wall for years.

Ordering takes a minute. Deciding where it goes is the part that takes nerve, because everyone who walks into that room will see it and decide something about you. That is the real decision, and it is yours. The ones who own these stop noticing the reaction after about a month, and never stop noticing the painting. Hang it anyway.

There is one of this canvas and there will never be a second. If you have read this far, you are already picturing the wall.