These are whole body self portraits. They are about my self consciousness and varying stages of
modesty as the mirror reflects the gaze of the woman in the painting whose face is hidden or
turned away. In "Homage to My Body" I set myself up as the Velasquez Rokeby Venus but the light
in it recalls Vermeer or Dutch painting.. In "My Face" I set myself up on my bed looking playful like
a yogi looking in a big mirror, going for the light in this one too, creeping light with lots of color in
the grays Dutch light.
I turn paint into the embodiment of female self-consciousness to scrutinize and be scrutinized to
feel what it might have been like to simultaneously be Courbet and his model. By thinking about
myself as a character I am also asking what it would be like to be in one of Courbet's paintings
considering how sensual they are and what that means in the context of our age. Myself not being
young and thin but athletic and tremendously able bodied, I’m a woman not just being gazed
at but who is setting up the stage
