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COLLECTOR'S FOCUS
PORTRAITSDemeter, forbade the earth from bearing
fruit until she found her daughter. Zeus
decreed that Persephone would spend
part of the year with Hades and part with
Demeter who allowed the world to flourish
when Persephone was with her. The
pomegranate and its seeds as well as the
background of falling leaves bring the story
to mind. His model, Emily Oldak, has her
own interpretation. She says, “Love, love,
love, the green background leaves. The
pomegranate seeds feel like fallen tears.
Allowing my fears to crack open with the
cut of the fruit and embrace the presenceof vulnerability with poise and with nature
to support my internal falls alongside the
green leaves to know I’m not alone.”
Aneka Ingold, who recently won The
Bennett Prize for women artists, paints
portraits of women. “Although they do not
represent any one woman in particular,”
she writes, “there is a part of me described
in each character as well as an attempt to
represent a shared female experience.” She
investigates the idea of creative energy in
her portrait Emanate. Describing the
painting, she writes, “There is an atmo-
sphere of potential inventiveness thatcan surround a person...The swirling lines
coming from her head symbolize the
thoughts flowing from her mind, revealing
her imagination forming new ideas. The
birds flying out of her mouth represent
verbal emissions of newfound beliefs and
opinions that are soaring out into the
universe. Creativity could also involve
something more spiritual such as the aura
of colors emanating from her body and
filling her environment.”
In the pages of this special section dedi-
cated to portraiture, the artists featured
express the traditional and contemporary10 11 1213 14