Portrait of Bambi

In Portrait of Bambi, Jaxon Northon presents a poised yet charged image of Crystal Collazo-Esparza, painted in 2012, the year the artist and his subject first met. Against a backdrop of dark clouds and distant mountains, she emerges from a strip of vivid green grass that runs along the base of the composition. Her fitted black dress is cinched with a leopard-print belt, a note of elegance set against the scene’s surreal elements. Draped across her shoulders is a small fawn, its head resting gently on her left shoulder while her right hand loosely holds its hind legs. The gesture recalls her nickname “Bambi,” given for her slender, graceful build and long limbs. In her left hand she holds a detailed anatomical heart, deep red and veined, with the name “Jerry” faintly inscribed—a private reference to an alter ego of the artist. The painting balances fashion-model composure with layered symbolism. The fawn suggests innocence and fragility; the heart anchors the scene in the visceral and m