Andrea, 2006

Listless, 2002

Artist's Statement            
The figure in general offers not only something about the sitter, but about human kind as well.  Without the shield of individual expression through clothing, I strive to capture subconscious states of communication that relay innocently through posture and facial expression. The work that I create is translated through not only my temperament but the subjects and the viewers as well.  This combined interaction generates my intrigue of working with people.  I could draw the same subject a multitude of times and each piece would be a different experience revolving around variables of our changing sensibilities.

 Our independent perceptions are modified as rapidly as our society transitions around us.  This social progression alone keeps my work informed and current.  The female image in social context, and our relationship to it, is complex and stimulating.  Although I use traditional representational methods, I believe my drawings are subtly but firmly linked to the contemporary culture through concept, unlike it’s perceived antiquated stereotype.

 In art, despite our best intentions, portraying an exact moment in time with the figure is generally just out of reach.  Each moment is as fleeting as the rise and fall of breath.  In my current portraits, I explore the ephemerality of capturing a likeness by primarily using pencil to reinforce this concept; the graphite can be erased as easily as a facial expression or as bone pressing against the skin can disappear.  Traditional approaches to drawing employ a variety of different tools to help interpret the subject that I see onto a sheet of paper.  Even with the help of these academic methods, art cannot become an exact science.  With emotion, perception and travail, I seek to find the best possibility of visual translation of the immeasurable realities that I see and experience.