File talk:14-Family Portrait-detail.jpg
It isn't an insignificant question as to how we see ourselves in our art. One need ask what is eternal for some of us wish to attempt something that might be understood well into the future.
Though the phrase "communion with another soul" is commonplace, that should not suggest it trivial but essential to why we come before the artwork. In the manifestation of spirit bridging the gap between artist and viewer we take in and share in its essence. It is indeed a communion.
And it is compassion that has compelled the artist to render the overwhelming beauty in the world. And it is compassion that will be what emanates from the portraits, though not only the portraits that await the future.
For there is a destiny that resonates with this compassion embedded in the dynamics of presence and absence, that though already discussed in the art of the portrait doesn't go far enough to reach its most essential conclusion - that everything an artist does is meant for the future; that though we can't cross the barrier of time, we have our part to play in it that they in turn extend compassion to those further into the future.
So that it isn't just that one might be remembered, but that what one leaves behind offers the sweet ferocious message that what we are here to do beyond our own lives is to share our love with those yet unborn that they might understand that they are not alone.
- Richard Rappaort, The Return to Compassion, 'Preface', "Portraits & Passages", www.richard-rappaport.net.
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