Mask Paintings

These works are paintings that the viewer physically interacts with to fully experience. The internal image is a portrait focussed down to the model’s face and the skin of their torso, but then covering the face is a mask. The mask can be reflective of the model’s travels or ancestry, but it is also a metaphor for the various social roles we adopt in life that bring with them different social masks that often obscure who we are. It is with this mask that the viewer physically interacts, opening it up to reveal the model’s face. With this interaction the viewer is brought into intimate involvement with the model and also with the painting. This viewer involvement is key to the work for it makes the object nature of painting clear and brings time into painting.

Rachel with tigre mask
2011
Oil on wood
27" x 5.5" x 2.5"

 

Richard with African mask
2011
Oil on wood
31" x 6" x 2.5"

 

Jillan with Mexican mask
2011
Oil on wood
28" x 5.5" x 2.5"