For me, painting is an act of empathy. It demands something intimate, something specific. It demands that I call on my own physicality, and psychology in order to find places of connection between the person I am painting and myself.
I work with the same models for an extended time, making multiple paintings. I aim to create dense spaces that function as extensions of the figure, and call attention to the relative distance between the viewer and subject.
The tension between physical closeness and accessibility or inaccessibility has become crucial in painting these portraits. The point of view I use places the viewer physically close to the subject, however, the paintings demand an amount of work on the part of the viewer, that defies notions of immediacy. The gaze of the subject can either give the viewer further access into the psychology of the subject or deny it.
