A friend of mine, Elisse, is a big Henry Miller fan. He wrote "Nexus" and "Plexus" and "Sexus" and "Drexus" and "Complexus" and "Prospectus" and a whole whack of other books I have yet to read. I have checked his books out at the library though. Not to read the books -- but for the pretty pictures of Henry Miller on the back.

You see, Elisse asked me to do a portrait of Henry Miller. At first I was all giddy because I was absolutely certain that Karsh (one of my favorite portrait photographers) had done a portrait of Henry Miller. But then doubt crept into my brain and by the time I got to the library I knew that was ARTHUR Miller, the playwrite. Damn it.

Still, there were plenty of Henry Miller photographs around. In some of them he's a dashing young man in a hat. Yuck. In others he's a wrinkled old man with a bald head looking rough and feisty and grumpy. Perfect!

The major inspiration for this painting came from a sepia photograph on the back of "Plexus". Aw, what the hell -- I'll violate copyright laws and scan the photo.

That's the photo that inspired me. According to the dust jacket of the book, it was taken by Cedric Wright. Sorry for stealing your work, Cedric. Please forgive me.

Elisse eventually paid me, and now people who come to her home are faced with this man and exclaim "Who the hell is that?"

If you would like to commission a work, I am surprisingly low-priced and friendly. Contact me and we can talk about it.