Portraits & Selfies

'My social identity - as a disabled woman - came later in life, and it reduced me in some people's eyes to child status...an identity I resist but I try to draw attention to in my childlike portraits of figures or faces.

I drew confidence from Tschabalala Self's large portraits exploring her identity as a black woman through mainly big paintings, collage and 'assemblage' (using textiles like some of my Mask Me series below). Her portraits are economical and sparse and seem childlike, faces indicated by symbols (eyes, nose, mouth) rather than lifelike. By paring down my portraits and self-portraits into simple shapes I want to show how people's complex identity gets simplified, and to set up a tension in the viewer between the childlike form and the adult themes.'