Portraits
Portraits that capture an essence of a person fascinate me because they offer a way around the taboo of staring at a face and body. To take time and really stare at an artfully done portrait reminds me every time of how potent facial physiognomy and body language are without even trying. To say people are hardwired to be hyper-sensitive to changes in bodily/facial expressions is an understatement. I enjoy how easily a portrait of an individual proper can slip, wholly or partly, into a more generalized rendering of a person, possibly as an archetype whose depiction carries potential universal, symbolic and/or generic meanings. Some of my portraits have a dual life because they traffic between this individuality and universality.
I agree with at least two things the great artist Alice Neel said:
"In politics and in life, I always liked the losers, the underdogs.”
“For me, people come first, I have tried to assert the dignity and eternal importance of the human being.”