“Girl with a Saxophone Earring” is an homage to Vermeer’s eventually titled “Girl with a Pearl Earring”. When thinking of the pearl earring, I thought that, were the girl to be real, the pearl earring would be something she was proud of, it being 17th century Netherlands and all that. I am unreasonably proud of my homemade saxophone earrings and leadership position in Lake Brantley’s band, so it seemed only obvious that I had to do it after practice (providing time for my face to calm down from a sunkissed pink to the dewy white of my muse).