I have always been fascinated by portraiture. To me, a successful portrait has a presence. It has weight. The portrait evokes the emotional presence of the subject as well as the viewer. In my exploration, the defining goal is to create a portrait that becomes an experience to view. By using the familiarity of the face as the template, my process involves hand painting the developer in the darkroom, intentionally revealing specific, desired aspects of the face in the negative. Doing so creates a stark negative space that gives the portrait a lucidity. Instead of creating a realistic, straight from film portrait, I am more interested in exploring how the original image can be brought to the surface in alternative ways. The portraits embody their own unique strangeness. I enable the viewer to process impressions of a face, and of the shape of a head. I am comfortable with the viewer ultimately feeling uncomfortable. My job as an artist is to challenge the viewer. Make the viewer see differently, think differently, and most importantly, feel
differently.