imagine if instead of sending selfies, we did as they did in the 18th and 19th centuries ~~ commissioning artists to create delicate, tiny painted portraits, not just as keepsakes, but as quiet confessions. a face, a pair of lips, a lover’s eye ~~ proof of devotion or the hope of being adored. an intimacy known only to the giver and receiver. imagine pressing your lips to a painted collarbone or carrying someone’s gaze in your left pocket, unseen by the world, but held close, only by you