Brave Face Painting

WAR PAINT Series “They understand only too well the liberation into savagery that the concealing paint brought.” –Lord of the Flies, William Golding Body painting has significance in many cultures and serves a variety of purposes from spiritual cleansing to battle preparation. My War Paint series draws upon this rich symbolism to investigate the construction of identity. In these paintings, the modern human form becomes the canvas, a painted object of his/her own creation. Reality and abstraction compete within the figurative foundation of each piece to make the subjects’ inner struggles more tangible. The application of pigment is suggestive of their psychological states, the color of their self-made armor exposing more than it conceals. By deconstructing and rebuilding the figure, my goal is to invite understandings that reach beyond the immediate surface and reveal the complexity of the individual.