artist statement
I’m an oil painter from Newbury Park, CA.
I’m interested in channeling my emotions through painting, using art as a way to express my feelings. I’ve had my fair share of problems with depression and anxiety (like many do) and by creating art I’m able to channel my negative emotions.
My paintings are focused on faces and hands, as I believe these to be the most expressive parts of the human form. With the series “Body Language,” I first explored the feeling of an outside power manipulating my facial expressions, forcing a smile when I could not do so myself. Since that first painting, my hands become that power, forming the expressions in each subject’s portrait.
My process begins by taking reference photos of someone as I touch their face. Having to invade someones personal space becomes a shared experience. I tell the subject to sit still and emotionless as I squeezed the tips of my fingers into their face. Each reference photo session takes about an hour and after that hour I gain a deeper connection with that person.
The result of the portraits relate to how I felt during my emotionally difficult times, when I needed to show everyone around me that I was okay, when really, I wasn't. There was always some type of internal force that faked it to keep me looking happy. I realize that everyone deals with this in some capacity. I relate my paintings to the feeling of an unknown power in us that forces us to smile even when we don't feel happy.
I am inspired by feelings of depression and anxiety. I am interested in mental illness and how little it is talked about. The stigma of mental illness only leads to victims feeling they need to hide, to wear a mask, which ultimately leads to worse things, such as suicide.