Painting Narratives: Untitled 1 (Portrait Series)

Bruna Massadas, Untitled 1 (Portrait Series), 2012. Acrylics on panel, 18 X 24.

He told her to meet him at 5 PM that rainy afternoon. She arrived at the coffee shop at 5:10 hoping she wouldn’t have to wait. She looked around and he wasn’t there. “Maybe it’s the traffic,” she thought. She walked to the cashier, ordered a caramel macchiato, and dropped the change on the tip jar. She carried her coffee to a table as if she was wearing heels (although she was not). As she sat down, she positioned her body diagonally from the door and tried not to look at the door so often. She kept her eyes at her watch, allowing herself to look directly at the door every 30 seconds for 2 seconds. As she saw him opening the door from the corner of her eyes, she dipped her index finger in the coffee and slowly licked the whipped cream off. She was ready to tell him that she didn’t see him coming. But it wasn’t him.