STATES OF HEADS: Unauthorized Portraits

This work is the result of an effort to explore my feelings about restrictive male gender roles and their destructive consequences for the planet. I began by combing through thousands of media images of men in positions of authority, seeking instances when I felt my subject's public mask had slipped and the true state of his psyche was revealed. I then removed these moments from the media stream by enlarging and recreating them in oil paint--a medium that has been used for centuries to portray the powerful. In doing so, I hope to draw my viewer into a palpable recognition of the mental and emotional condition of the individuals depicted and ultimately an evaluation of their fitness to lead. Taken as a whole, this work poses a number of key questions: Why are certain men driven to attain power at any cost? What is the emotional and spiritual toll exacted on those who wield it? What is true strength and how is it simulated? How does the continuous flood of media imagery dull our intuitive knowledge of what's actually happening? Why do we find it so easy to relinquish our power when so much is at stake? Ultimately I hope these portraits will prompt my viewers to question the wisdom of allowing their subjects to continue to wield power on an increasingly fragile planet.