and now onto the eyes of course i leave the eyes for last for many reasons chief among them is the technical i want to gather as much information about this painting about how the paint reacts to the solvent to my swab as possible before i approach the eyes which are arguably the most important and most delicately painted part of this painting no margin for error but there's also some poetry that gets me through the drudgery of cleaning the background or boring paintings i like to imagine that i'm the first person who is seeing this painting as the artist imagined it since it was created that my eyes are now taking in the true painting just as this portrait sitter is peering out from behind that dirty varnish for the first time since he was painted since he was born the idea that we're both seeing the world fresh for the first time well sure it's corny this is after all an inanimate object a copy of an inanimate object a painting of a person not a real person but if executed well enough any painting can capture us can transport us and even if for a brief moment we can start to see some life in an otherwise still object
NO_SEGMENT_TOKEN