Sea Glass

Fog — Gotts Island, 2017: photograph by Ben Weinberg

Mike is painting my portrait. He stands in front of me squinting past to the canvas at the end of the hall as if scanning the horizon for a landmark to take a bearing.

He was a Physical Education teacher before he switched to art.

“I thought I’d miss being active,” he says as he sets up his brushes and bowls of linseed oil, turpentine and oil paint. “But with this technique I keep moving.” Each time, after he sizes me…