“Is It cake”

Is It Cake? was a commissioned painting by a new friend in my life, Ella. She had seen Mid Morning hanging in my dorm room and was left wanting for her own family portrait.

More eclectic and busy than my other works, Is It Cake?  blends 10 reference photos from her home - her pets, her family living room, her siblings as children, a Jane Fonda home workout tape - into one scene. It lives in her father’s house, right above her bedframe and is my first commissioned painting. As an extra thanks, Ella took me out to a ramen dinner after I delivered her painting in brown butcher paper. It was a small act, but I fondly remember the 40 minutes we spent in Ramen Kowa eating edamame and pork gyoza, swapping stories about our summers and wondering how close we might become in the years ahead of us.