My current body of work examines the subject of crowds in open spaces, and the ways in which we present ourselves when we choose to take part in a communal experience. Featuring large collections of people drawn from a variety of settings – exhibitions, political rallies, festivals, sporting events, protests – the series addresses themes of group identity and the public/private self. The paintings depict their subjects out of context, with minimal visual cues regarding location, both as a means to raise questions about the assumptions we make in interpreting group behaviors, and as a way to explore the purely visual beauty that I find in images of masses of people. The subjects of the work, shown in unguarded moments of vulnerability or preoccupation, exist in a state of suspension between individual and collective identity.
