The Silhouettes
The silhouette is a different way to look at the human body. Everyone’s silhouette is unique, yet without interior lines giving us a sense of a person’s features it becomes somewhat anonymous. The anonymity allows the viewer to relate to the emotional state rather than focusing on the appearance of a particular person.
I use the silhouette as a framework for the interior and emotional world that is contained within our minds and bodies. We interact with one another while never really knowing what is going on the inside. I also find it interesting that we are so intimately involved with our own bodies yet we have no idea what we look like on the inside, visually we only see the exterior; we sense the interior. What do our emotions look like?
The paintings in the silhouette series function as shaped etching plates would. The painting is contained within the silhouette much as an etching is contained within a plate and is surrounded by the white of the paper. In the case of etchings white space is completely acceptable. In a painting, it is unexpected. Furthermore, one expects to see a figure within a background, I am more interested in that which can happen within the confines of the figure physically and symbolically.