artist statement
My paintings are inspired by vintage black and white photos.
After inheriting my grandmother's family album, I became interested in the unique look of these small, old black and white snapshots, and began to collect them. I find these images compelling. Here are groups of people posed to be recorded for history.
What were they thinking? What secrets remain with them forever unknowable?
These people whom I've never met intrigue me because, while they are remote, I find them also strangely familiar. The photos suggest multiple narratives about their lives and thoughts, and so I find myself filling in the missing stories.
Painting them in large scale, with invented color enhances that experience for me, and I hope for viewers.