What does a portrait say about the sitter, and about the painter? What does each one renounce or invest in the process of likeness-making? Rather than a painting, this piece is more like a blurry snapshot of a mere few moments of Ian’s life as he scuffled about in the cloistered studio (or among the radiant stars of Sirius and other constellations). It is a monochrome record of shadows and murkiness, flickers and flares. Ian’s vocalizations -- by the processing of which this piece is made -- are potent and challenging. Working through them is part of my larger attempt to renegotiate concurrent, ubiquitous opposites: harsh versus ethereal, dark versus luminous, epic versus quotidian, hierarchical versus level-and-equal.