ARTIST’S STATEMENT: Genetic Anomalies series

I grew up in a family with boxes full of snapshots, some going back to the 1890’s. My father was a professional photographer, and was always adding to the piles. Later, I began to find photos from other families discarded in junk shops and swap meets, and I was struck by the similarities in subject matter; images that are almost archetypal in their universality. What is it that we choose to record about ourselves, these images that end up on little paper squares in boxes or albums, these impressions of an instant in time? Surely there are the Important Themes, the Weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, First Birthdays; but we also proudly pose with our pets, our possessions, and our silliness.

My recent figurative paintings are inspired by these found and personal family photographs, images captured, for the most part, by naïve photographers. They offer moments in the lives of ordinary Americans, some in tableaux staged with obvious intention, and other, more candid images that constitute a genre all their own. These are pictures that present our masks to the world and at the same time, reveal something deeply personal about the subject and/or the eye behind the lens.