The experience of being one of Bradford J. Salamon's portrait subjects revealed much to me about his passion as an artist and the intellectual rigor with which he approaches his work.

For my portrait, Salamon had a particular vision of the mood he wanted to create along with a subtle subtext he wanted to suggest. As a recent transplant from the Midwest, I am a newcomer to the Orange County art scene and this shaped Salamon's initial ideas about my portrait. A preparatory photo session on an overcast day with me in a long black overcoat, black gloves and under an oversized umbrella all give me away as an outsider to sunny Orange County, someone perhaps more at home in a drearier climate.

Salamon's meticulous preparation not only referenced my Midwest and East coast perspective, it was also a nod to the work of the early 20th century portrait painter Romaine Brooks, whose intense portraits of women are a remarkable record of the artistic and literary community in Europe in the 1910s and 20s. The combination of posing her sitters in tuxedos and tailored overcoats and an austere and restricted palette contributed to an air of assertiveness and modernity in her portraits. Since many of Brook's sitters were themselves outsiders, the nature of those portraits and her painting style became a point of departure as Salamon approached me as a subject.

Only now, as I see my finished portrait, so I fully appreciate Salamon's vision behind our early dialogues. As I watch him conclude this new body of work, I am honored to be included in this ambitious and thoughtful endeavor.

Irene Hofmann

Curator of Contemporary Art

Orange County Museum of Art

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