SENIOR THESIS
Oil Painting Series
For my senior project, my paintings explore the ideas, paradoxes and states of aloneness and togetherness using imagery of hands as my subject. Hands exist in pairs but also function separately. My work is engaged in representing both the joining and the inherent separate natures of the two. I am interested in how hands simultaneously function as one unit yet are aware of their isolation and can be brought together by that mutual aloneness.
I work with oil paint on canvas. The initial process of painting is fast-paced and immediate, capturing the emotions of that particular moment. I work with sheer washes of paint that create depth that allow the white of the canvas to create luminosity. The following layers function as my reflections on those particular emotions, a more analytical part of the process. The creation of the image of the hands is done in a visceral way, and serves to connect my own sense of touch to the paintings. Working in pairs of canvases allows me to simultaneously depict two different experiences which are nevertheless linked. The visual form of the joining of the fingers and the spatial distance between the hands portrays a relationship that is both alone and together.