There has never been a question about the figurative nature of my work; I paint legible characters. I care about specificity and capturing the likenesses, clothing, and hair styles of my subjects so that they are contemporary and familiar to me. In painting, I am limited to the two dimensional: this is a difficult space in which to capture the nuance of an individual, but there is resonance in painting a part of someone. These portraits are tributes to the trust built between myself and my subjects.
When I paint, I prefer to work from life. Some of my strongest paintings happened in one or two sittings, either in a mirror or with a model. Acrylics allow me to quickly work over an image and continue to layer as I see fit. With watercolor, the layering is more apparent, and I have to be careful about where I choose to place pigment. Both mediums make use of the joyful colors that reflect my love for the people I paint.
