These are whole body self portraits. They are about my self consciousness and varying stages of modesty as the mirror reflects the gaze of the woman in the painting whose face is hidden or turned away. In "Homage to My Body" I set myself up as the Velasquez Rokeby Venus but the light in it recalls Vermeer or Dutch painting. Going for the light; creeping light with lots of color in the grays. Dutch light.
I turn paint into the embodiment of female self-consciousness to scrutinize and be scrutinized to feel what it might have been like to simultaneously be the painter and model. By thinking about myself as a character I am also asking what it means to be in the paintings considering how sensual they are and what that means in the context of our age. Myself not being young and thin but athletic and tremendously able bodied, I’m a woman
not just being gazed at, but who is setting up the stage.
