2018

I return to figurative painting from time to time from a commitment to still-life. I realized that my groupings (either of people or vessels) were a response to the same emotional conflict: a desire for isolation vs. a need to be included. And the compositional aspect was similar. By focusing on composition rather than details, I can tap into the universal experience of being an individual within a group and the ambivalent tension that exists in that state of being.
In this case, after my mother’s death, I felt a need to connect with her through my painting from an old photograph of the two of us: A memory of carefree, sunny , loving summers by the lake.