Deep Dive: Journey Of Adam

When I met Adam in 2008, I had gone through a pretty long period of dating (and frankly finding the wrong people). I was also taking care of family and providing them housing. This was a huge financial and emotional drain, and I rarely had much of my own space. Growing up was difficult, but I was frequently one of the more stable ones.

Things changed when I met an enthusiastic geek at a coffee shop. We bonded over video games and our shared passion for technology. He was shy and sheltered, but ready for adventure. So a bond formed, and we dated for five years.

This photo was taken shortly after I met after I gave him the "Brandon Treatment".

He had never styled his hair this way before, but enjoyed it. Unfortunately it was too high maintenance for him, so he stopped doing it this way. Interestingly enough, I started painting during our relationship. You can see two red panels behind us in this photo.

This later became this painting:

With this growing confidence in art, I started tackling bigger projects, which later led to my first series where I started to paint portraits on canvas. More on that later. 

In 2013 Adam and I decided to part ways. There were a number of factors that contributed to this, but my new focus on body painting put a strain on the relationship. I spent most of my off time working on creating new designs and painting people. For me, this was the first time in my artistic career that I was successful. For him, it robbed our relationship of quality time together. We parted ways, and eventually fell out of contact. 

So how did I come to eventually paint Adam? That's a funny story. It wasn't as if Adam wasn't supportive of my work, but he didn't see why I was so obsessed with body art. In fact he often said that he would never get painted. Things changed however, during a live painting he won a free body painting! Everyone in the audience gasped, because we knew where he stood on this. I looked at Adam and said If you do not 100% commit to doing this painting, I'm drawing another name. He said he'd do it, and so we began the process to transform him shortly afterward.

I parted his hair, once more, to the side. He complained during most of the process, especially about painting over the eyes, but I think it also gave him an appreciation for the hard work I put into it. Painting an entire body is exhausting, and I've painted over seven hundred of them.

To his credit, Adam took direction very well. I turned him into a robot as a subtle reflection of his often logical perception of emotions and the world around him. It was also loosely inspired by the androids Chris Cunningham used in various music videos such as "All Is Full Of Love" with Bjork.

I hope you've enjoyed this personal story and various anecdotes, as well as the journey I chronicled with Adam and his painting. I still talk to him, from time to time. Instead of me in his family photos, I see his current partner smiling back. I'm glad he's happy, he's doing well in life, and he's with someone he loves.

I appreciate you and your support.

Love,

Brandon