Ellen Dreibelbis -- Finding Uniqueness in Portrait Images

"Chinese Lanterns"

27" x 19"

pastel on
Art Spectrum paper

Fourteen year old Rosie has a grave beauty; a ballerina, a musician and a top student, she is an unusually focused young woman. She is just on the cusp between childhood and womanhood and I wanted to capture that sometimes awkward, but often delightful time. I used the wallpaper with the cavorting monkeys to allude to her childhood, and the elegant vase with the Chinese lanterns to symbolize her coming of age.