Provoking thought with paint, blending consciousness into canvas, my work contradicts alienation. With jeweled tones and dramatic lighting, I create a true presence. Captured in the model’s gaze is the knowledge that the person has experienced life fully and has moved beyond life’s challenges. The warmly resonant face on the canvas moves the viewer out of complacency and evokes psychological and social urgency. This is exemplified in my current series, Original Position. This series is inspired by John Rawls’ thought experiment that states that if one steps behind a veil to cloak our knowledge of our individual abilities, social status and income it might render us able to effectively consider the interests of all people, especially the least advantaged members of society. I incorporate the veil as a vehicle to discuss the personal side of fairness. The mere act of standing before the painting induces the viewer’s interaction. They too are transported behind the veil and become part of the equation. Along the way, I exploit the inherent ethereal quality of the veil as it interacts with the figure. These works become guides to explore the challenges that speak to the core of one’s own existence. The paintings are intimate, and viewed up close create a sense of looking into a mirror to meet eyes that ask inescapable questions. Beauty and pain, life and death, come into balance and the viewer becomes the philosopher, drawn into introspection on the meaning and preciousness of all life. Art becomes poetry, and poetry stirs into philosophy, leaving the viewer subtly changed.
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