It is crucial to the physicality of any work that I stay connected to the human form. The act of painting living bodies with my own body is what gives my paintings their moving, breathing presence. When I’m working in front of the model, the images are sometimes recognizable but when I leave the model, the subject transforms itself into an abstract form, i.e. Arena, arch, pond, etc. This “figure work”, my body and the model’s body, inform my abstract work, the image is often a metaphor for the self and the shapes refer to the human form. For me that close up, body-size placement reads as a personal statement.
