Portraiture is a wonderful vehicle that can support diversity. I’ve chosen to portray my friend, Sikh American artist Manu Saluja. Her attitude of relaxed observation contradicts her formal attire of luxuriously-patterned silk—painted directly from observation. Emphasizing the individual, it disarms the viewer of any preconceived cultural bias. This portrait is about trust. Manu has, quite literally, let her hair down. I portray her beauty as a person, not through the lens of objectification of “the other” but as my friend. The luminosity of the langa she is wearing is a direct metaphor for her unique and shining spirit.