The painted images are based on family photographs and slides taken over forty years ago at holidays, and other gatherings. These are “Kodak Moments” distilled in snapshots: projections of happy times. My subjective understanding of the past is not made known on the surface of the photos. They don’t reveal the temperament of a family interrupted by pregnancy, marriage, birth, infidelity, lost income, divorce, sudden death and secrets. While the nostalgic, iconic nature of the poses suggests idyllic American collective memory such as birthdays, family reunions, and holidays, the painted images question the appearance of the ideal.
This work investigates my family history as I attempt to uncover layers of complexity and interpretation. The pictorial narratives underscore prescribed gender roles, ambiguous sexual tension and emotional separation pervasive in the family system. These people seem oblivious to the drama that plays around them. From my current perspective I contemplate what happened outside of the photo while I paint. I crop, blur, fragment, combine and leave empty, aspects of the images to emphasize relationships, or the lack of, and the changes that occurred. This process reenacts my understanding of the past and the present.