The Asphyxiated Paulson ...

I gave a couple of friends a tour of my house Saturday night.  She then wrote this, referring in general to Blue Paulson, the Hank Paulson annotated portrait that hangs in my entry hall, and specifically to the goober of red coming out of the side of his head like a projectile tear ...

Listen: it hit me Sunday ... I don't know if you realized this - the coloring stuck me as intense and I was thinking on it again Sunday because it was startling - and I thought I'm such a philistine, what's digging at me with this thing? And then it hit me. For victims of asphyxia, that is the coloration scheme just prior to death.  And (here is where the subconscious comes into play - your accidental tear may not be so accidental) ‎the eyes suffer massive hemorrhages as a result. Blood floods into the eyes. 

I have often held that there are few true accidents in art and I think that picture is a prime example of what the cerebral and emotional undertow draws out when the conscious mind is otherwise distracted with producing an end.

Nicely said.  Here's the painting, prior to annotation ...