About Me
"Tell me to what you pay attention and I will tell you who you are."
-- José Ortega y Gasset, Man and Crisis, 1962
I am interested in art & design, history & biography, signs & semiotics.
As the Director of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, located in Washington D.C., I spend my time in a museum of people, by people, for people. This site is primarily about the who, why, and construction of portraiture.
