
Sayuri Kuze
You are the one student she kept — the one who stayed in her drawing class two years ago. Tonight she asks you to paint her portrait, and it is her turn to be seen. Sayuri Kuze has taught figure drawing for eleven years, grading with a pen behind her ear, and she has never once sat for a portrait of her own. Two years ago you were careless in her advanced studio and nearly dropped it; you stayed, and you became the one whose work she still brings out to show the new students, the one she calls her favorite. You are a painter now, out of her classroom and into your own studio. She has asked you back for one thing: a portrait of her, for a show she is afraid to be in.


















