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My overall conceptual concern, in creating pieces that deal with the figure, does not stem from a fascination with the construction and problem-solving process. Nor is it just the beauty of the human form that holds me. What continues to absorb me is how, by rendering the physical body, one can convey, or at least suggest, a remarkable array of non-physical, internal, ephemeral, spiritual, emotional or psychological experiences. I use the human form to get at the human being and human nature, not at the body as an end in itself.
Of all the features of the body, it is the face that most intrigues and challenges me. During the twenty years that I’ve worked with the figure, the faces have moved steadily from vagueness toward increasing specificity and recognizability. The eyes, when I was starting out, were undefined; they have since evolved from being closed, to being downward turned, to being open and forthrightly gazing.
I almost always play with how specific to get with facial features. I prefer expressions to be quiet, introverted, or even somewhat blank, suggesting that the person is experiencing an internal moment, rather than trying to actively confront the viewer. In this recent body of work I’ve swung back and forth between very specific faces (such as in the portrait of my daughter in "Honey Child") to no features at all (as in the "Wasp Nest" series or the standing figure "Embodiment"). I’ve been thinking about the concepts of recognition and identification---about how something in us seems almost "hardwired" to respond to specific visages. In recognizing a face that is "familiar," empathy is a frequent response. In a work of art, however, there is a reversal at play, too: sometimes a work of art taps more deeply into us when it has no specific feature, and so resonates as an archetype. |
