In my newest work, Disguises, begun in 2007, my fascination with how people present themselves continues. I have begun a new series of large drawings using photographs I took of children wearing costumes at Halloween, at costume contests, and at home playing with their costume boxes. I am most interested in what children will spontaneously choose from their costume boxes, without any help from parents, and the costumes older children will create by themselves. Concealment and display, beauty and strength, heroism and aggression, creativity and conformism- through costume children can experiment with different types of adult identity and power, explore traditional and contemporary masculinity and femininity, and imagine how it would feel to be someone or something different. Masks add a layer of mystery to some of the portraits.
The portraits are drawn in artist’s colored pencil on Strathmore 500 bristol board.
