5″x7″ acrylic, 2010. This bunny, who belongs to four-year-old Ella, is one of four identical bunnies: One sits pristinely on a shelf, while the other three enjoy equal rotation and affection. Ella can tell them apart with one little squeeze. The most beloved of them has a spot of brown paint on its back, left foot and is known adoringly as “Paint-Bunny.”

Sometimes the source material I’m given to paint from is inspiring to me for ridiculous reasons. In the photos sent by Ella’s mother Kristen, the bunny’s wide gestures and forward posture and the dramatic back-lighting evoked a Nineties-era Hype Williams hip-hop video for me. This kept me amused throughout the painting process, even while I kept in mind Kristen’s wish that the portrait be “very serene” and “a little vintage looking.” Is there such thing as late-nineties vintage?

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