jason

2004
oil on canvas
24" x 18"

my friends jason and nathan (a pair of twins) lived next door to me during our last year at uva. i agreed to paint each of them when they separately asked for portraits; jason wanted to be depicted playing his guitar. the dog's name is carmen (though jason swears it's not carmen, but an imaginary dog that belongs to him), who belongs to one of our friends, and she wasn't originally going to be in the picture. one night i was over at their place and saw a photo of jason and carmen on the coffee table and, being drunk (remember, we drank a lot in college), i stole it—unbeknownst to jason—and proclaimed that i would paint her in the picture, too, to surprise him. so jason tells me that this painting is going to hang in any and all of the houses he lives in in the future, and that's, of course, one of the best compliments an artist can receive.

see also: marx & nathan