Self-Portrait as Liar, 2005

My work attempts to describe momentary encounters with people. Using photography as a starting point, I hold a photo shoot with a close friend, and see what occurs between us. I usually choose the image which is the most revealing: it is often also the image which renders the subject the most vulnerable, both psychologically and physically. Photography can capture “in-between” moments of great awkwardness; painting can extend the length of those moments, creating a context in which metaphors of mortality and grace can be extracted out of the imperfections and physical flaws of the subjects.

Self-Portrait With Pink Flowers, 2005

Lately, I’ve become interested in the idea of slapstick, but not necessarily in a purely comedic sense. I’ve always loved, for example, the way that Bruce Nauman’s videos and language pieces merge comedy into pain and rage, which creates the simultaneous urge, on the part of the viewer, to laugh explosively because of the transgression of what is being seen, and to groan with some kind of genuine dismay. I am intrigued by the notion of subjecting a person’s head and face to various physical phenomena, in the aftermath of which various psychological stuff would leak out.

This could take the form, in a painting/portraiture context, of water being poured on someone’s head, of a person’s face in the aftermath of violence, for example, bloodied, bruised or bandaged, or the aftereffects of a meal, in which the person’s mouth is smeared with food. Aside from the obvious pleasure in the physically sensuous abilities of oil paint to describe blood, glistening wetness, and flesh, I’m interested in a specific kind of narrative ambiguity of the sitter, photographed, under some kind of physical and emotional duress; the crossroads of the physical (low) and the mental or emotional (high) is, for me, a productive site for contemporary portraiture.

Self-portrait Wearing Tinsel Wig, 2005