Mugshot

Given a Cloth in Common prompt of Shame, I took some time to search out faces of people recently arrested in Florida. I was particularly looking for expressions of embarrassment and remorse. Surprisingly, out of the hundreds of faces, I could only find 6 or 7 faces that looked a bit ashamed. Many were scary looking or smiling, or looking menacing or smug, rather than sorry. Some had a long list of law infractions next to their photo, but they do not appear to regret their actions at all.

One of the faces belonged to a beautiful woman, who seemed upset and concerned and ashamed. It appeared that this was her first arrest, and it was for selling drugs. Her photo was taken before she was given jail clothing to wear. Hoping to make something beautiful from a challenging and negative prompt, I selected her mugshot on which to base my portrait.