Before this I did not work figuratively. I felt that figurative work was not the most intrinsic or the purest way to communicate ideas and leaned more toward abstraction, experimenting with color, shape, line and texture to make objects.

These pieces were all made within the past four or five months. They are figures painted on gessoed and quilted cotton muslin.
Around the time that these pieces were made I was thinking a lot about empathy- I don’t know why exactly but maybe it has something to do with growing up/ getting older and maybe feeling some kind of responsibility. I work at the Newark Museum with children mostly which has probably also had an affect on me. It could also have something to do with our political climate.

To empathize with someone you have to accept them, or even embrace them. This is where the gesture of hugging came from and how I stated painting figuratively.

The scale of the pieces relate to my body in so much as the figures within the painting a close to human size, my size. So that when you face the work it is like looking into a reflection.