The Absence of Presence

Portrait paintings have been a source of imagery, immortalization, and example of class status for centuries. As a painter in present day, I am investigating how one can challenge the term portrait. My research considers the absence of a portrait or a version of portraiture in a non-literal sense. Themes that are being explored and researched are the things one leaves behind, the remnants of an individual, an evidence of presence or absence of presence, an existence outside of our personal being, or extenders of ourselves. Painting these transitional moments provides an immortalizing acknowledgement of this extension of oneself, but not providing the literal information of “who.†My hope is to encourage the viewers to consider what they leave behind, how they are evolving or transcending daily, and question how one can be perceived from an extension of self