The series of paintings, “At the Border” shows people who are being scrutinized, tested, judged and put through the paces of acceptable behaviour.  I explore the idea of how we all must respond to external forces (such as government) and various other rule makers who dictate standards of comportment.  Paintings from this series are titled, “Learning to Behave,” “Waiting for Instruction” and “Trying to Make Sense” all of which show people who have little or no voice or agency over their destinies.  Power lies elsewhere and their resistance is as yet unformed.  Some of the paintings show the figures’ fledgling attempts to assert themselves (these paintings are titled, “Defy.” “Resist”, “Plot”), but in the end their resistance is limited to facial grimaces and signs of physical discomfort.  

 

    This group of people are more like test subjects or pawns who are used by others rather than sentient individuals.  They function more as a group; they all share a manner of helplessness.   Since they have an outsider status, they are able to remain objective about the forces they stand in opposition to.  They are like animals whose particularities are ignored or misunderstood.  In the later series, “Witness” I take this kind of “outsider” status but give it to animals who are experimented on, captured, cloned or killed intentionally or unintentionally by human malice or carelessness.  In both bodies of work, my sympathy lays not with those in power but with those whose struggles remain obscured and who are silenced because of their subordinate position.  These creatures can’t or won’t participate in the destruction or negligence but also can’t seem to make them heard.  Animals, and humans who care to listen, are the keepers of our collective memory—the ones who watch.