Self Portraits

I am a woman painting and drawing women because I don’t see what I want to see. I am choosing to be an artist to protest and challenge our mainstream ideas of what a woman “should” do and "norm" of how women are portrayed. With my artwork, I intend to question these societal constructions surrounding women.

For my MFA thesis exhibition, I exhibited four black and white oil paintings on panel and one large graphite drawing on a 206" long paper. 

I built the four 48" x 72" wood panels in the CCA woodshop. I then painted my face and the faces of my favorite three contemporary artists: Margaret Kilgallen, and Julie Mehretu, and Jenny Saville. Through scale and color, I intend for the larger-than-life paintings to command respect.

In the drawing, I was thinking about what would happen if the major voices on the status of women gathered for a panel discussion. In my imagination, Anne-Marie Slaughter and Sheryl Sandberg would have a lot to say to each other, Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem would be having their own conversation, and I would want to talk to Oprah. For this piece, I wanted to reference the last supper, but there is no central figure, and everyone has wisedom to share.