~studio-workshopthats-how-i-read-your-lips

That's How I Read Your Lips

June 1, 2010 11:30 pm #painting#acrylic#abstract#art show#gallery#finished

Grayscale painting titled That's How I Read Your Lips, showing an extreme close-up of an open mouth.

That's How I Read Your Lips

Acrylic on canvas, 9" x 12", 2010
Visual description

A grayscale acrylic painting showing an extreme close-up of an open mouth, framed almost like a portrait on its own. The lips are painted in soft gray tones, pulled back to reveal teeth surrounding a dark, shadowed opening at the center.

I got frustrated with people asking me repeatedly, "Can you read my lips?" So I painted the mouth I actually see when someone tries to talk to me. It was a quick relief painting session, more about getting the feeling out than planning it carefully.

Updated (4/4/2026): This painting was exhibited at Linda K. Jordan Gallery at Gallaudet University for "Beyond the Waves: Deaf Art," running September 29, 2025 through April 3, 2026. When I found out about the show, I hurried and built a frame for it. It had gone without one for fifteen years. Now it's proudly sitting inside its own frame.

See my Journal post about this, Beyond the Waves: Deaf Art.

In the Studio

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