"This painting is the outcome of a close partnership that has evolved from sharing a studio space for over eighteen months. We were interested in the idea of having two artists combine their particular methods of painting in an equal collaboration. We wanted to create a picture that would be both portrait and self-portrait, and which would say that the artist, her work and her world are inextricably enmeshed."
KRISTIN AND LOUISE

"Although I like to paint portraits in a fairly traditional manner, I think it's important to convey more than simply what the sitter looks like. When the idea of this portrait was first discussed, we felt we wanted to bring to it some evidence of Louise's artistic preoccupation with architectural spaces and forms so as to be able to depict her in her own world. These space forms also seemed to be manifested in Louise's personal style - simple structured clothes, such as the pinstriped jacket, and even in her face - the contrast of short, sharp haircut, dark eyebrows and red lips on the smooth planes of her face. I wanted these elements to combine in a dramatic whole. It made more sense to have Louise state some of this in her own idiom of stencil and airbrush than for me to painstakingly recreate it using my own methods of brush and palette. Working in this collaborative fashion the two styles welded to form a picture which is both a portrait and a self-portrait."
KRISTIN HEADLAM

"I am concerned with our experience of the city environment. I believe the portrait is both a representation of the sitter and the sitter's world. It is the artist enmeshed in the city. She is defined by the feel and space of the city. The white lines against the blue background represent the night light - the light piercing the darkness. They form a pattern or arrangement of streets. They are also glass facades that structure our sense of space as we move about and between buildings, underpasses and freeways. The body and the city are connected by the geometry of the coat."
LOUISE FORTHUN