In The City Collage

How do I thrive with silence in a very loud world? As a person with hearing loss and a lifelong use of hearing aids, observing people and faces has been one of the many ways. With a taught lip-reading practice, I create portraiture with muted color in tandem with slushy brush strokes. In my work, I catch the details of eclectic visages layered with texture. My paintings showcase wrinkles and facial blurs that offer a moment of hushed speech. My work has been fueled by the shared wariness of the present and taking note of people throughout their day in candid instants. In contrast with my creations in portraiture has been an abstract figurative focus tied to choreography. I reveal a sense of musical levity on the basis of body and fabric tone with frozen dance. These undefined figures are flowing yet sometimes entwined on the canvas. Freedom begs from within, with a goal to let it out with the brush. My past work dealt with forced optimism using abstraction and joyful primary colors. That is no longer the case. My attention to an empathetic depth of faces, bodies and movement feel more organic to my creation. Alongside that foundation, I now lead with achromatic hues before adding any semblance of dampened color. As present day emotions sway, so will my observations of society at large manifest in my paintings.