Sic Incipit Spectabilus

Between going to the Latin Mass at St. Joseph's and watching The Borgias on Showtime, it's all I can do to not write the whole post in Latin. Or some version of Latin that I'm making up for the occasion (see title).

For you completists, I came one point short on my 10th grade final exam of winning the Latin medal. And I am still angry. Anyway, to translate: Let the Spectacle begin.

All by way of announcing, in a round about manner, that I'm launching into my portrait of Ayn Rand. For purposes of the painting, she, of course, looks like this:



The painting looks like this (or did earlier today):



Now, as the briefest of asides, lets consider this:



Every time I gesso a canvas (it isn't really gesso; it's Bennie Moore primer) I start around the edges and and then work my way towards the middle. If you don't do it that way, the canvas tightens unevenly and the painting warps slightly. Sometimes they do anyway, but less so.

Anyway, for you people who like to dive deep into my brain, the whole idea behind the hole-in-the-universe style of The Myth of the Rational Market evolved from the fact that every once in a while I'd look at a partially primed canvas, with the "hole" in the middle, and think--"Hmmm, that's kind of a compelling image."

So one day I just painted one.

Wow.
Exactly.
That's just the kind of stuff the art historians love.
Isn't it? And here I am, giving it away for free.
You're a prince.
Of a sort, yes.
A lion on the plains of the Serengeti, surrounded by jackals.
Perhaps, but that could be too much.
A jackal on the plains of the Serengeti, surrounded by buzzards?
That might not be enough.
Somewhere in the middle?
Yes, I think so.
A simple man?
A simple man wielding a mighty hammer.
Like Thor?
Like Thor.
Wow.
Exactly.
The hammer's a metaphor, right?
Yes.