He expressed it through dark word portraits, in which dead and dying young men were stripped of any glory or sentimentality.
Although Mr. Bogosian is concerned with the fundamental things of life, in contrast to the word portraits of abrasive underworld punks for which he first won fame and fortune, he has not replaced ferocity and street smarts with savvy and class.
Many of the word portraits in "Twelfth Night" act as a kind of doubling, or tripling, of the physical portrayal we see before us; each character is not only conjured up by the actor but reimagined through other characters' eyes — especially if those eyes are lit by love.
Leonard was a wonderful storyteller, and he would weave these vivid word portraits of the people and places of his childhood.
"Fred Astaire" is a very readable and glowing 50,000-word portrait, notwithstanding Epstein's determination not to subject Fred to rough cross-examination or prolonged background scrutiny.
As a result, Whistler appended the words "Portrait of the Artist's Mother" to the "Arrangement" title just for this exhibition, although that name stuck and the painting has come down to us by the more popular "Whistler's Mother".
German-British band Slapp Happy paint a wonderfully deft and concise word-portrait of Renaissance great Michelangelo, set to a jaunty tune and with special reference to his mind-bogglingly stupendous painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Through December, "In Our Own Words: Portraits of Brooklyn's Vietnam Veterans," an exhibition of life-size portraits and audio clips.
A more recent and more topical piece of folk art is the zany multipanel painted relief sculpture that illustrates the murder trial of O. J. Simpson with words, portraits of the dramatis personae and carved renderings of the bloody glove and an incriminating sneaker.
