"Grow"

Oil on linen
48 x 48 inches

This painting, "Grow", is part of my series In Their Own Words. This series of large-scale oil-painted portraits is intended to evoke a perceived dialogue between subject and viewer.

After selecting a diverse range of subjects I know personally, I presented each with a questionnaire designed to engage them in an increasingly abstracted self-representation.

Loosely based on popular psychology tests such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the questionnaire begins with broad, culturally prescribed questions intended to define people quantitatively, such as occupation, age, and gender. It then progresses to more intimate and seemingly whimsical prompts, such as perceptions of happiness and preferred bathing habits, before culminating in the subject choosing a color, shape, and single word that they feel best represents their authentic self.

These three elements directly inform the composition of the final painting. The chosen color determines the background. The selected shape is incorporated both as a compositional element and as a visual means of expressing the subject’s reasoning for their choice. The single word they have selected is the one they sign in American Sign Language, which becomes the focal action of the portrait. Together, these components personalize each work within the series’ fixed structure.

Once the questionnaire is complete, I interview the subjects about their answers to gain deeper insight into their self-perception. I then teach them the American Sign Language sign for their chosen word. I sketch and photograph the subjects nude from the waist up, capturing key stages of their specific sign. To ensure timelessness and minimize personal stylistic markers, I depict each individual without accessories such as tattoos, most jewelry, eyeglasses, or makeup.

Through this direct and interactive process, the subject plays a central role in shaping the final composition, encouraging an intimate exchange between artist and subject. In the formative stages, I am both audience and facilitator, offering the subjects an opportunity for creative conceptualization and self-reflection—becoming, in effect, both viewer and co-creator of their self-representation. This representation is then filtered through my painting process.

All the paintings follow a strict format: consistent lighting, fixed camera positioning, identical canvas dimensions (48 x 48 "), and a standardized placement of the figure. Within these parameters, the only variations come from the subject-defined elements of color, shape, and signed word. Viewed as a series, these paintings are intended to convey both movement and repetition: movement in the signed word, repetition in the recurring format.

Finally, each subject, painted slightly larger than life, engages viewers as active participants by inviting them to “read inches of their dynamically moving hands. In this way, the audience witnesses the subtle movements of intentional body language and the intimate exposure of self—In Their Own Words.