I am intrigued by the pervasiveness of "selfies" in everyday culture and photography. Selfies are immediately disposable, indeed to the point that the selfie has negative connotations. They are snapped, distributed via social media, then rarely looked at again. But what if the idea of Selfie were moved into the art realm, where the act of taking one's picture (as self-portraits) were given more weight and was meant to last as a piece of art, separate from immediate disposability. Can one strip away the negatives of a "selfie" to reveal something deeper and personal. This is an on-going series in which I am using black and white pastels on paper to record myself and others in unguarded, non-selfie like states of being. 

From the "Pastel Self" Series. A series of mixed media pastel paintings on woodboard, examining emotional states of varying "transparency". How much do we show of ourselves, how much do we conceal? Making public, the private emotional world of self. 

From the "Gibralter Point" series. Pastels and liquid acrylic flora.