This is a a part of a new series.


Statement

In another body of work, Targets, I dealt with famous women. Some suggested that the use of anonymous women might be an interesting choice. At the time I was determined to mine a known feminine narrative, especially ones I had a personal interest and investment with.

Nonetheless I became aware that I certainly had an investment with beauties unknown, models and the like. Many come from previous eras, before models were names. I couldn’t resist collecting their faces, just as I had collected the famous ones.

After a fifteen year hiatus, during 2009 and 2010, I also worked as a makeup artist again. Going into it this time, my whole view of the face was different - I mean the one I montaged with, not just the one I painted commercially. The return to a makeup career, such as it was, freed up and reshuffled my idea of the anonymous beauty. I had also a heightened idea of the face as cut up body parts, well aware that women’s faces are sliced and diced all the time.

I recall a fellow artist once telling me that beauty was dangerous. I knew this to be the truth in painting, but I also felt it was the case in many other things, including women. What I want to do with beauty and glorious artifice is put her where you least expect her to be. She's often shoved into a box and I want to bust her out. She’s the ocean, the sky, the forest. She’s the skyscraper, the Pantheon, the illuminated manuscript. She's also the wall, the decor, the carpet you step on.