Recent portraits

I began a series of portraits that reflects my more recent personal concerns.  I heard a radio program that explores the difference between the eastern “self” and western “character.”  Within this constructed dichotomy the pictures are about the later, character.  I am concerned with turning my work towards the idea of pictures that reflect age, family, friendship, and the development of a personal consciousness.  I am interested here to embed the person within a stage of development, a time, and place.  In the case of Linda below the picture was derived from a family photo that was taken as I began to date her when we lived in suburban United States.  Whereas, the self-portrait is from when I lived in Berlin, additionally a painting of my father in his apartment, and my daughter Katie in the hospital.

Beyond the subject of the pieces, i painted the pictures within a realistic paradigm.  I was interesting in expanding some of the painting techniques I had utilized when painting landscape pools into these works, but at the same time being faithful to the subjects I was working with.  So the paint alternates from experimental and lose to an approach that is illustrative and exacting.

Finally I wanted works that were close to me, works that were a product of my age (not in a social context but in a numerical one).  I have watched people I love grow older and develop as people.  I wanted works that captured their lives and also my experience and memories of them.

A Second Set of Portraits

This work is an expansion of earlier portraits of teenagers.  The difference with these pictures is the scale of the paintings have been enlarged.  Also the background has been left clear letting the raw linen form the backdrop for the face.  The paintings drop many of the aesthetic pretence of earlier work through the utilization of a documentary style where the subject stares directly out at the viewer.  The application of paint has also been more systematically applied rather than following a thicker more spontaneous method.

These pictures began with the intent of painting a young woman who confronted the viewer. I wanted her to have a personality and an identity, and not be a ubiquitous girl. However, I was also aware that the piece intersected the realm of the “male gaze” and I was interested in the ambiguity inherent in the tension found at the borders of this idea.

In addition to the paintings I also completed preliminary etchings, in fact the etchings were essential to the production of the work. Drawing from photo’s directly on the plates were then used as templates for the larger work. 

“Dean in NYC” 40 x 52” oil on linen

“Paul in Berlin”  48 x 60”  oil on linen

“Linda (SLC)”  40 x 52”  oil on linen

“Walter”  48 x 60″ oil on linen

“Hannah”  40 x 52″ oil on linen

“Katie in hospital”  18 x 24” etching (second state)

“NJ in NYC”    18 x 24”  etching (second state)

“Chelsea: (mask Project) 40 x 52”  oil on linen

“(untitled)”  40 x 52″  oil on linen

“Spygame”   9×12″   etching

“Phoebe”  40 x 48”  oil on linen

“Maery”  40 x 48”  oil on linen

“Maihana” 40×48′ oil on linem

‘Nicoli’  40 X 48”  oil on linen

“Pheobe” 12 x 16” etching

“Amy”  9 x 12”  etching

“Trisha”   30 x 40″  painting (an example of an older work along the same lines)