Eyes, 2003-5
Conveying emotions via the human figure is essential to my artistic expression. I like to paint the dark and the troubled. Whenever I paint a happy face it feels fake and contrived. In Buddhism, it is believed that all life is dukkha, or suffering. Even love and happiness are impermanent and thus unsatisfactory. In my latest body of work, I reveal human suffering behind human eyes. Eyes are said to be the window to a person’s soul. Perhaps this is why I am moved to paint people’s eyes. Merging the intimacy of a Chuck Close portrait with the dramatic tenebrism of Caravaggio I capture moments of affliction—either contemplative or thunderous.
