I am making small scale photographically based figurative works using a painterly approach. I am doing so in an attempt to forge a path though the landscape of the past into the present. The materials are sourced from family archives of old snapshots dating back as far as the late 19th century as well as found photographs of unknown people.

Through my process of translation from the photograph to the painting or print I am having a dialogue with the people in the past. This communication is a key for me to feel connected to the love I feel for these people regardless of whether I actually knew them. I find that particularly poignant in the conversation that happens between myself and the childhood versions of people, some of whom have already experienced an entire life and have since passed away. I am interested in scale choice as a way to simultaneously lend a sense of distance and intimacy to the image.

These works are meant to act as homage to my ancestors and to all unidentified and unknown people both past and present whose lives remain obscured by time, place and or social standing. I wish to acknowledge the mundane and the everyday with all of its latent potential both realized and unknown.