A Year Together

What does the portrait of a marriage look like? For Juanita McNeely, the artist who made this painting, it looks like a moment of calm in a tumultuous life. She leans in to whisper something into her husband, filmmaker Mickey Siporin's ear. He holds a motion picture camera and touches her kneee. There is affection, but also intrigue, something a little off. Strips of images showing the two run along the right side of the painting, alluding to film and also to photo booth portraits. Images above them in color show Juanita kissing Mickey. On the far left, at top, a nude figure pulls something alarming from her mouth; an allusion to Juanita's considerable health challenges in the years before and after this moment of celebration.