Artist Statement: "In my work, I use portraiture as a vehicle for creating a series of personal vignettes. Always formal, and often theatrical, each portrait serves as an assertion of a state of being. I am constantly examining human relationships through these devised images: assigning roles, removing context and rearranging formal elements. By employing my own sense of visual symbolism, I develop a "poetic description" of the presence I wish to convey. Rather than set out to reveal a narrative, which demands a literal translation, I suggest a mood."