curious kin
Exhibition Statement
Of my childhood memories, my fondest time was spent exploring my grandparent's eclectic Minnesota estate. They had countless treasures, my favorite being tintype portraits of family members dating back several generations. Some of the photographs were kept in old musty albums, while others were displayed in a crooked salon style arrangement in their bedroom. To me, time had a way of distorting these images; it made them more than just depictions of people. The portraits whispered to me.
The ancestors depicted in Curious Kin come from both my maternal and paternal lineage to create a self-realized pictorial history of my origins. My process begins with a rigorous preparation of the canvas substrate. Layer upon layer of medium is slowly built up, then sanded away leaving a velvet-like surface that amplifies the materiality of the paint. The foundation of the image is drawn in pencil and begins as a direct representation of the source photograph. The portrait is then transformed into a drawing-painting hybrid after a precise amount of acrylic is applied. The varied textures undulate between harmonious continuity and intentional self-destruction, consummating the final fragmented likeness.