The Distance Between

Oil on linen, 60 by 80 cm. The same woman appears twice. One figure stands in the foreground, upright, head lowered, her gaze turned down and away. Behind her, smaller, the same woman sits on a plain wooden chair and looks up, watching. They wear the same white vest, and the warm, even light holds them in one space, yet they do not meet. The distance in the title is not between two people. It is the distance inside one, between who is standing now and who is still seated behind her, looking on. Nothing in the scene explains itself, which is the point: the quiet here is the kind that sits between a person and an earlier version of themselves.