TOM HANKS PORTRAIT
"I've always felt like a child in an adult's body"
Tom Hanks
This portrait was done as a part of my school assignment, which held some tribulations and an argument with my teacher on the topic of freedom of art. He said "If Rolling Stone Magazine is going to call you and tell you that by next morning they need a portrait of ... you won't say no". So I answered I would, because to me the most important thing in doing a job is actually being inspired by it and not getting paid. I was very angry with my teacher. I was very angry with his idea that money can mean more than the truth of one's heart. Yet, when I looked at him I found that deep inside, behind all his outward roughness and pazaz he is just a hurt child, who does not believe in happiness of doing the things you like and being valued for it. Interestingly enough I found the same quality in the person he assigned to me for the portrait. Even though most of his roles in cinema are very light hearted and kind and often funny, Tom's life is far away from those idyllic images - ridiculed and shy as a child he has kept his childhood pain through the years not being able to liberate himself from it. Yet, the real him, the child, lives deep inside and he - the young Tom is the one who is shining so bright when the actor performs his remarkable roles in adult life. There is a child in every one of us. That is what I want to remember and to speak of through this piece.
