And the Artist's Statement, As it Stands Now:

Represented are 30 of the 100 portraits I am creating as an exploration of the complexities of human identity.  This is pursued through the searching and creative act of drawing. The drawings strive to represent the proper physiognomy and acute identities of the tremendous diversity of people I meet as a college art instructor. It is this diversity that inspired my initial thoughts of documenting these faces.

Though the repetitive nature of the grid serves to bind and unite the series, I am allowing myself a degree of experimentation with form.  Intuitive abstraction, gesture, erasure, and re-creation become important aspects in mirroring the diversity represented. In the response to each face I choose to draw, I am looking for the ways I can push and pull these drawings from what is expected.  We are wired to recognize faces, so I am particularly interested in how I can play with this instant ability.  I am exploring shifts in pose, focus, and layering to get my viewers to look a bit longer, a bit harder. This suggests the drawings in a constant state of change, analogous to the shifts inherent in physical and psychological identity.  

Often artifacts of society help build our identities.  Beyond their physiognomy I am responding to what I think will get viewers to think most about who I am drawing.  It could be a pair of glasses, the way hair is styled, suggestions of the clothing choices, and more.  This potentially builds complexities and pushes up against what we expect out of a certain face. Finally, an encaustic seal is torched, carved and scraped into the drawings to shift surface quality and visual density.  The way they are drawn is as diverse as those who are drawn.

This portrait series will continue to grow, as I envision that it must be large in scale to become a regiment of human identities.  Even as I look at the 30 I’ve made so far the most impactful part is how the eye jumps from face to face, scanning and seeing the shifts I have been working on.  The ideas I'm generating for future and bigger work will spawn from the concepts and formal work in these. 100 portraits? Yes, but I doubt the form will stay entirely consistent as I continue to work on this series.