Sami

Jenn’s Art Room’s Sami is a painting that seems innocent and unconfrontational but subverts many expectations around portraiture. When we hear "portrait," the first thing that pops into nearly everyone's mind is a person. While a painted image of any life form is a portrait, we always imagine them synonymous with human representation. At first glance, we register Sami as a painting of a dog, not a portrait of a dog, but its status as a portrait becomes undeniable as we consider the picture. What separates a portrait from other paintings is the degree of intimacy and care associated with it. Even if Jenn did not know Sami, she painted her for someone who knew and cared for her well enough to go to the trouble of commissioning her portrait. This love and desire to capture on the long-lasting surface of a canvas draws us to portraits and fills us with a sense of intimacy we can relate to our experiences.