A while back, I asked Gabby to come to my studio. Work immediately began and the beginnings of several sketches and pieces started to come together, but I didnāt want to rush the main painting so I shelved it while the usual pattern of clients interrupting personal work took over. Many paintings never get finished or see the light of day, both personal and professional, but Gabby was special. I wrote these notes back during her visit:
Her time in my studio was mostly light, ļ¬lled with her bubbly energy as we cracked open some beers, exchanged embarrassing drinking stories, taking group photos as if weād known each other for more than the actual hour we had, and her trying to convince me that she has an actual medical condition where she ļ¬nds everything adorable. Youād be fooled too if you were lied to by an Oscar-nominated actress with her talent. But when I asked her, stripped of any pretension, that if I were to paint her, how sheād like to be portrayed, she said āI donāt really care about how Iām portrayedā and then she paused and continued āI guess ⦠did you ever watch the show Community? Ya know how the schoolās mascot is the human being? I mean, I donāt want to be a grey faceless spandex blob like that, but Iād like to just be a human being. Not someoneās message or idea of what I stand for because of what I look like, just a human, how youād paint me if I were anyone else".