Painted portraiture and the scientific method may be unlikely bedfellows, but it is by combining these approaches that, in the space of a year, I've discovered what it means to be a woman.
Conjecturing that womanhood originates in physical changes, I gathered seven test subjects for study. Their transitions ranged from puberty and pregnancy to marriage and menopause, but also embraced modern gender surgeries like breast enlargement and male-to-female sex reassignment. I painted one "before" portrait of each of the test subjects and, a year later, when their transitions were complete, followed up with an "after" portrait.
Scrupulously observing the scientific method, I also painted "before" and "after" portraits of one subject who would not experience a major physical change during the year's interval: I painted myself. I became the control subject for my own experiment, and, in one of those delicious moments of unexpected synthesis, learned what scientists have known for years--it all comes down to asking the right question.