Alchemical Portrait #2 revisits a canvas from 2021 that I wasn't satisfied with at the time. Four years later, I decided to paint over it, responding to the existing marks beneath. Unlike the original, where I touched my face with one hand while drawing with the other, this time I simply interacted with what was already there. The result is a conversation between past and present, where the original painting peeks through in places while new gestures assert themselves. This layered approach felt like a more honest way to work with a piece that hadn't quite resolved itself the first time around.