Putin

Nicole Jeffords (2022)

Drawing Putin was not the most pleasant experience. First, his wide, flat, boneless face is difficult. There’s expression, dour and harsh, in his ribbony mouth and (counterintuitively) in the cold, dead eyes. But really, trying to depict this man made me feel an uncomfortable chill. I’ve drawn and painted many politicians, always able to detach, as if they were specimens pinned to a wall, but this guy, with his deadly demeanor, brought true uneasiness as I stared into his eyes and moved my pencil across the paper.

When I was in Moscow/St. Petersburg four years ago, I noticed how closed and sad most Russian faces were, and figured it had to do with their long history of oppression. Putin’s face, despite its strange expressionlessness, conveys a deep paranoia and self-absorption that probably bear the seeds of his downfall. This is not a happy camper. A huge weight that he can never ignore rests upon his shoulders. To seize and become ruler of the territories that once formed the vast Russian empire. That’s a big and hopefully impossible dream, but Putin palpably carries power and resolve in his being, and judging by his behavior in Ukraine, would not shrink from committing atrocities. That’s what we must always be prepared for.