Lynn Regina 

Curator: Before us is "Lynn Regina," a portrait by David Michael Bowers. The technique, seemingly plein-air, gives it a fascinating immediacy. Editor: It projects an aura of classic formality, but with a strikingly contemporary directness. I feel like I'm meeting her gaze in real time. Curator: Note the crisp contrast: the figure is framed against a loosely suggested landscape, blurring the lines between representation and artifice. Her dress is pure dark form. Editor: The landscape reads like an idealized backdrop, perhaps intentionally recalling a Renaissance portrait tradition where landscape denoted status and cultivated intellect. Curator: Indeed. The formal arrangement calls attention to the geometry, to how the planes of the face are constructed with a delicate hand. Look how the cascade of blonde hair provides balance. Editor: Her gaze meets the viewer directly, but her expression is carefully calibrated to hold back, which is really common with a subject portrait, but very subtly well done. Is that calculated for the contemporary setting of viewing the art? Curator: Perhaps. It speaks to how identity can be presented—or withheld—through calculated visual cues. We should examine the color palette employed to achieve the effect that the setting sun casts shadows that are very rich. Editor: Absolutely. Also the tension between background and figure is palpable. One suggests expansiveness; the other containment, hinting at a multifaceted character. Curator: Precisely. It creates an engaging visual puzzle. Each brushstroke adds a layer to her perceived self. Editor: This tension captures a push and pull present between individuals and archetypes. Is this why the artist omitted the year, to render it timeless, making sure the iconography continues? Curator: Bowers encourages our reexamination of those conventional forms in surprising ways. It remains for us to tease out the particular. Editor: The interplay of light and form will remain etched in my memory. A truly contemporary reflection.