May/June 2020 Centerfold

"Liberty II (You Know Who You Are)" is from a series of paintings that use imagery and themes of the Statue of Liberty. Starting with paper photographs of the statue, I cut and fold the images to create a composition as a basis for a large canvas painting. Playing with an iconic image that almost everyone can recognize allows me to explore ideas of equality and corruption, mythology and reality, resilience and crisis. The image’s title, "You Know Who You Are," is a lyric from the movie "Moana" and refers to the idea that only through seeing and integrating our brokenness (our greed, our systems of injustice, our mistakes) can we move closer to the greatness we strive for.