Before Judge Jelderks would sign my model release form for participating in Public Faces, he asked me to promise him that I wouldn’t do anything in my painting that would make either him or the court look bad. 

I’ve always thought of contracts as insurance, though maybe not in the way you might think.  They’re a good way to be certain that all parties involved understand just what is going on, but, in my situation, they are not much more.  I don’t have the means to enforce any agreement I ask my models to sign. 

With all this in mind, it was fascinating to me that a person who had devoted his life to the letter of the law was more interested in a verbal promise than in a signature on a piece of paper.