2010, Oil stick on black bond, 11"w x 17"h
Portraiture is not simply about the desire to immortalize or to mirror– particularly a portrait of a dog. One accesses a portrait of a dog through different means, without linguistic symbol or structured language and with a different set of assumptions and a different set of place. This displacement allows a subtle undercurrent of instability to seep in. It can be funny and endearing, gently disarming, and sometimes unexpectedly terrifying.
I paint about paint and painting; I am interested in what it is to see and to picture and the relationship between these processes. I am always mucking about in the vague, productive area that exists between false poles (of the dominant and the submissive, the serious and the humorous, the good and the bad, and between abstraction and representation). These power dynamics are an integral part of the entire history of painting and particularly portraiture. This history and these structures are not static but ever-approachable; ever evolving. A portrait is always dangerous and seductive, because it engages our desire to see (to be recognized and known) and our capacity to reciprocate.
A Daimler Company
