Paul Shore

Braid Portrait 16 (Evva), 2004 From "Or, with your names, you come here, you are home"

Graphite on Paper
12.5 x 9.5 in.
Unique
$1000.00, framed
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The Braid Portraits are all drawn from life. As much as a drawing of a person’s face is a portrait beyond just a likeness, so too, a portrait of a person’s braid is a reflection of an individual. Eyes are said to be windows to the soul. But Mona Lisa’s smile is just as potent a feature. In the seven years I’ve been drawing Braid Portraits I’ve found the sitter almost always says (with surprise) that the drawing does in fact look like them. Each person I draw braids their own hair. Their choice of braid tells something about who they are. And their braiding technique also conveyances aspects of their persona. Just as the gesture of the body or a hand conveys personality, the braid’s gesture does so too. The conversations I have with the sitters are often quite interesting. They can be fairly intimate. I think that some of the personal stories are told because each sitter is turned away from me . Sometimes they’re turned to the side, but mostly I’m drawing the back of their head. Apparently it’s a safe orientation. People talk not only of their relationship to their hair, but also about relationships to others by way of hair. I’ve heard often of the bonding that occurs between mother and daughter during braiding. Many early childhood memories surface while I draw, but also stories of adolescence. The relationship is usually more complicated at that time. And the act of a mother braiding her daughter’s hair can be a moment of peace, or at least connection, during a time of conflict and change.