Paintings > Portraits

mom / kindergarten teacher
oil on XPS foam
18" x 24"
2024
arcangel
oil and mixed media on wood
20" x 38"
2018
dad
oil and collage on canvas
16" x 20"
2007
Kate Casanova
oil on wood
19" x 28"
2001
low wage lifeguards
oil and used carpet on wood closet door
36" x 80"
2025
lifeguard
oil on wood
20" x 75"
1997
Art Students
oil on wood closet door
36 x 80
2025
number theory
oil on oak table
1996
birthday boy
oil and pencil lead on canvas panel
10" x 8"
2009


Portraits that seem to be filled with the living energy of a person have always interested me. Among other things, they offer a way around the taboo of staring at another person's face for too long. I enjoy how easily a portrait of an individual can slip, wholly or partly, into a more generalized rendering of a type of person, possibly an archetype whose depiction carries potential universal, symbolic 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 and portraitist 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.”