Anna Couani #71 portrait

seeing footage of Basquiat

the thing that’s noticeable

is his lack of affect

seems expressionless almost

but with a shy smile

and yet he was producing

neo-expressionist works

not that there’s

a direct equation

between an artist’s product

and their own appearance

his eyes seem to look inwards

in the video

not staring and crazy
like the self-portraits

when I take on his portrait

for a print

the edges get smoothed

and it’s now more chewing

than chewed up

silk screen print after Head by Jean-Michel Basquiat