Artist Statement

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My  work uses portraiture to explore ideas of embodiment, by which I mean, the relationship between personal identity and appearance. I seek to ask questions about the interaction of embodiment with social experience, and how my subjects express their gender, sense of self and find empowerment in that expression.

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My paintings are my personal investigations into socially constructed standards of gender presentation, body, gendered beauty and bestowed legitimacy established by a heteronormative society and culture. My continual interest in painting queer subjects, is sparked and sustained by my own experiences and relationships with others whose identities fall outside these social norms. I view my representations not simply as appropriations of the physical body, but as honest and relatable portraits of people in my beloved community.

 

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As I engage in the painting process, the relationship between myself as artist and my subject becomes pivotal. My portraits are a collaboration with my subjects. I paint people, not bodies or faces, and I find joy and connection in the rich experience of getting to know someone through repeated sittings, cups of tea, jokes, pet interruptions and always stories.