Artist's Statement

Painting as Diary

For me, painting is as essential as eating and breathing and the goal has always been to explore what seems most important at the time.

With the exception of my abstract meditation series, I have continuously focused on the figure. In my family, bodies were celebrated and admired if they fulfilled a certain criteria. But definitions of male and female began to change, a close family member came out, and I wanted to focus part of my work on the changes. I painted my first trans portrait in 1998.
But no matter the identity of my models, my goal is always to create intimacy and respect for the physical body.