Artist Statement
It is mesmerizing how the graceful act of rubbing a light, black residue, ashes from animal or vegetation substances, can be transformed and repurposed. It is an act of revival. Charcoal is a thermochemical decomposition of organic material at elevated temperatures in the absence of oxygen. It is a process of transformation of an impure form of carbon, volatile and fragile, but full with a tremendous capability to ignite.
For me, these portraits are that fire. They pay homage to people that I care about and find singular. I apply myself with the undertaking to repurpose the fragility of merely dust to create something greater, firing its possibilities to generate an experience.
I am drawn to human exuberance and steady but nerve-racking physical and inner beauty. In these portraits, the faces are a road map of the lives of each individual. In them you can see and feel joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and love. I pause and force myself to remember the images of complicated, entangled rhythms and the human condition with little space for banal imagery. The convolution within these images fascinates me.
Once immersed, I am able to grasp a vastness that I cannot fully relish. It is then when painting becomes my haven; I can resize and reclaim these experiences on a surface by moving my hand gracefully to create.