One face, asked three different questions. The first version is full gouache, a red rose crossing the cheek and a spent sunflower at the shoulder, with the letters of my name set into the composition as painted blocks. The second lays the same portrait over a checkerboard and fills only some of the squares, so the face has to survive being interrupted. The third keeps almost nothing, a pair of glasses and two marks for a nose over a sunset wash. I wanted to know how little is left before a portrait stops being a portrait. The answer turned out to be surprisingly little.