You see the face first
Before you know the title, you've already looked at the face. The eyes, the mouth, the direction of the head. You're forming an impression before you know anything about the piece.
We do this with people all day. On the train, walking down the street, sitting across from somebody at dinner. We read faces without giving much thought to the fact that we're doing it.
That's where my work starts.
I don't want to give you the answer
A face doesn't have to smile or cry for you to feel something from it. I'm more interested when you can't immediately decide what you're looking at.
A closed eye might look peaceful to one person and completely shut down to somebody else. A divided face can suggest conflict, survival, or something I never considered when I made it. I want to leave enough room for that to happen.
If I explain exactly what every expression means, I've already decided what you're supposed to see. I'd rather hear what you saw first.
The cost of being seen
The series is called Unapologetic Faces: The Cost of Being Seen.
Being seen can be uncomfortable. Most of us don't show up exactly the same way everywhere we go. There's the version people know at work, the one your family knows, the one your friends know, and then there's who you are when nobody else is around.
I'm interested in what happens when there's nowhere to perform and nothing to explain.
They're archetypes, not portraits
The figures in Unapologetic Faces aren't portraits of specific people. They're archetypes.
I don't want you trying to figure out who the person is because there isn't a biography you're missing. You don't need to know someone's name, history, or what happened five minutes before the expression you're looking at.
You bring your own experiences to the face. Someone standing next to you brings theirs. The two of you can look at exactly the same work and walk away with different ideas about what you just saw.
I've spent years paying attention to people
Human behavior has interested me for years. I've studied psychology, written about relationships and identity, and worked with people professionally. Somewhere along the way, paying attention to what people say and what they actually show you became second nature.
Sometimes it's a held jaw. Sometimes somebody won't quite look at you. Sometimes you can tell there's more going on than what they're willing to say.
I notice those things, so naturally they make their way into the faces I create.
Color has a job
I don't add color because an empty area needs filling. I'm thinking about where your eye goes when you first see the work.
Red can grab your attention quickly. Black gives certain areas more weight. White can open up another part of the face. I also use cracks, divided sections, and poured forms to break up the surface.
Those decisions happen while I'm working. I know when something needs to be there, and just as important, when I've done enough.
Give it more than a few seconds
You may notice the color first. Stay with the piece a little longer and your attention might move to the expression. Then something smaller starts showing up that you barely noticed when you first walked over.
That's one reason I don't like explaining everything before somebody has had a chance to look for themselves.
You bring your own history with you
I've watched people stand in front of the same face and come away with completely different reactions.
One person might talk about the composition. Somebody else sees a relationship or remembers something that happened years ago. I've also had people find things in a piece that I wasn't consciously thinking about when I made it.
I made the work. Once you're standing in front of it, what you see belongs to you.
What do you remember?
I'm interested in what happens after you stop looking.
Maybe you remember the color. Maybe it's the eyes. Maybe one particular face stays in your head and you can't quite explain why.
For me, that's far more interesting than whether the piece matched the sofa.
You can learn more about my background and how I came to the work here.