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If you are an intuitive you can tell a lot about the person in this singular portrait. Her performing name is Minton Sparks.
Like the fascinatingly changeable element, quicksilver (mercury's name & the root for the word mercurial), her persona varies like the weather. But it is anchored in her elemental soul.
This image shows Minton's spirit soaring. Watch her perform on stage & you will see her switch from funny to heart-wrenching to your pal as the heartbeats of her stories vibrate to the music of guitarist John Jackson.
Science tells us what goes up must come down. Spirituality tells us what comes down must go up.
The body's destination is earth. The soul's is heaven.
Children smile for the camera. As adults, that camera smile may turn plastic – a guard that our egos use to present its idea of our "best side."
In fact, our personality has far more "sides" than our face.
Portraiture, whether through photography, painting, sculpture, story or poem, succeeds when it opens a window to the subject's soul, not their smile.
Whether our expression shows it or not, we are all mercurial. A suffering patient may smile to fool us. A healthy person may fake pain to gain attention.
Caregivers use more than mercury to measure moods.
Some patients are so stoic they never allow themselves to express the triumph you see on Minton's face.
Artists like Sparks succeed because they engage the full range of emotions. To do that, she has looked hard into the storms & thus has a deep appreciation of the shiniest mornings.
Which is brighter in this portrait, the sun or Minton's up-gazing smile? Married, they are a quicksilver portrait of universal joy.
-Erie Chapman
Portrait of Minton Sparks "Caught by the Sun" by Erie, 2017
Journal of Sacred Work 
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