Chuck Close is interesting to me because he does portraiture, he works on a huge scale, and he employs printmaking as well as painting. The example of his work to the right is a woodcut that was professionally printed. His ability to collaborate with others to accomplish these massive  portraits is inspiring. The underlying grid is obvious in nearly all his work but here the radiating pattern adds so much to the composition. 

While I continue to work and fulfill assignments I am searching for my identity as an artist. People are very important to me. I understand that Close is working to identify people visually through his portraiture and I would have a different aim to identify characteristics of people through portraiture. There is a lot to take in with a Close portrait, scale certainly not the least. I am interested also in how similar Close's work is to mural painting at least in fundamental structure.