In my view, a portrait should tell the story of a person without words. Each face and expression are unique, and I love drawing and painting them. The women I paint are inspiring, and I am working to bring attention to them and their accomplishments with art.
The selection of the people to portray is part of the creative process of the work. Sometimes chance plays a role in the choice of who to include, while at other times events happening in the real world are the driver. Familiarity can also be a factor, as a child I was lucky enough to meet Gertrude Ederle, and I lived a block away from Louise Nevelson, so they are included.
Every piece is an assembly of virtual and physical layers of drawings and paintings. Surprising transformations of the image occur during the process of translating pencil or paint on paper to digital medium. Working back and forth between the physical and the virtual, I arrive at an image made of many layers, and produce many variations before I choose one to be the final piece. This process makes it possible for traditional techniques and digital media to come together and the “one” is made of the “many.”
