I was finishing one of the last of the colorbars paintings, working directly from my computer screen. On a whim, I decided to fire up photobooth and shoot a video of me painting (I’m always firing up photobooth on whims!). I was hoping to get the painting on the desk in the frame since I thought that’d be more interesting, but the screen wouldn’t tilt down far enough. When I played it back, I was surprised at how much my face changed once I started painting: the muscles relaxed, the eyes softened from tense, sort of brooding and intense, to – and here’s a word I don’t use often – peaceful.

painting from Rachelle Diaz on Vimeo.