Untitled #408 2002

Cindy Sherman made this photograph, "Untitled #408," and it's a trip! Her approach to character is, for me, very painterly. She's thinking through how a person is put together, layer by layer. The thing I keep coming back to is that blue dress. It's so intensely blue, it practically vibrates. The texture is so over the top, it's as if the fabric itself is trying to tell a story. And the way it catches the light? It's like Sherman is painting with light, sculpting this character out of pure theatricality. The details of the dress really shape how we feel about her, almost like an emotional costume. Sherman reminds me of John Waters, another great artist of character and persona. What's great about both of them is the ambiguity, the sense that there's no single, right way to read their work.