They paint your portrait first. You sit stiffly in velvet, neck heavy from every crystal that belongs to your family. The painter is as stationary as the thousands of embellished canvases that cover the wall. You hold no adoration for the painter. Any long you have for them is reserved solely for everything the painter creates. You’ve lost the language to justify why no one has been held by you as dearly as a landscape painting bordered by gold. Or why gloves and distance and meticulous rules keep visitors out of your gallery to ensure that you, and you alone, are the only one that can be left to admire paint, clay, and marble. You imply and hint and leave it up to poets to translate the longing that enters you when you are left to your devices. Just you and the art. For what is the purpose of art if not for yearning?
Creative Direction and Words by Bri Shufford.
Photography by Kyla Rys.
Styling by Alessia Giha and Lohr Cykoski.
Makeup by Annika Petersen and Ari Young Sang.
Production Design by Mike Bigsby and Daniela Alvarez.
Assist by Fai McCurdy.
Talent by Snigdha Gopidi, Morgan Epps, and Julianne Cournand.