Sublimation

Sublimation reduces a face to what matters: a pale pink profile, glossy red lips parted over white teeth, one dark drip running from the mouth. The eyes are gone — hair and shadow become a single chocolate-brown shape that swallows half the canvas, a lone tear caught on its surface.

Around it, the dark ground breaks into patches of blue, magenta, green and gold — a city, a memory, a feeling changing state. Sublimation is when a solid turns straight to vapour, skipping the in-between. So does she.