"Tom Sanford"
2003
acrylic on canvas
48" x 36"

From Tom Sanford's blog:

"This portrait of me is by Kevin Klein (circa 2003). I look really bad-ass because I was mean and lean during the drastic weight loss phase of my transformation into TomPAC (Thug4LIfe). Moreover, this painting is very intense in person because of its size - 48x36! Kevin is a true master of clinical photo-realism. Not slack art school projection style, but the old fashioned, hard core, square-by-square grid style. This piece is from a series of head paintings he did as a sort of hommage to Chuck Close a few years ago, and they are tight - they make those early Close paintings look sloppy!

I've been friends with Kevin for ages now. It all started when I was a senior in highschool and Kevin - a recent Yale graduate - was a student teacher in my art class. Two years later, I was at Columbia, Kevin was there for his MFA, and we have been boys ever since. Kevin gave me this painting when I was the best man at his wedding two years ago. It is without a doubt the best present I've ever received. Currently it hangs behind my chair in our dining room: perfect."