Portrait of Jessica, In Flux

The portraits I create are of people I meet through my travels. I am interested in their stories, and how they experience—and adapt to—personal transitions and societal change. They are also part of a continued examination of movement as it relates to time, experience, and the body. This theme, which I have explored since 2006, is further informed by having lived and worked in multiple cities around the world including Shanghai, China.

While living in China, I had the opportunity of being an artist in residence at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel, in the heart of the city. There I met French-Lebanese artist Jessica Soueidi. What struck me most when I first met her was her large, expressive eyes. Her stare was both vacant and intense, and it was impossible to not fall into her fixed gaze. There is a study by an Italian psychologist claiming people often experience symptoms of dissociation — including feelings of detachment from one’s body and from reality after sitting and staring into each other's eyes for 10 minutes straight. With Jessica, it takes only seconds. She recreates the same feeling in her own artwork consisting of large-scale drawings of subversive, defiant women. During our stay at Swatch, I ask her to model for some intentionally blurred photographs. Out of the hundreds of images I captured, the ones with her eyes staring directly at the camera were the ones I selected to recreate in my drawings. This portrait was my first attempt at recreating her look.