I wanted to learn how to do portraits and thought that if I painted 50 of them, by the time I got to #50, I might have some idea as to what I was doing. I found a book called “Down and Out in the South" by Photographer Jan Banning, which had an excellent collection of photographs—about 50 of them—perfect for my purpose. It was an accident that they all happened to be homeless people in the South.

But each of these faces has a name. Each has a date of birth and a place of birth. I became attached to each one.