As Good as it METZ

Exhibition Statement

During quarantine, I carried around a lot of guilt about not creating a volume of artistic “product.”  While peers and artists often commented or posted about the wonderful opportunity the pandemic provided for creative free time, I found painting difficult and strenuous.  Yet, I’ve recently come to realize that the period enabled me to delve into self-examination and, when the “painter’s block” passed, I found a new outlet for expression.

This body of work portrays that psychological deep-dive.  With so much alone time, I discovered sides of myself and my personality which were previously unknown to me – at least consciously.  Some were exciting, some were troubling, but importantly – they were all me, and for me to celebrate, work on, and explore.  For example, discovering my “inner saboteurs” allowed me to identify and confront the parts of me which inhibit my growth.  This collection of self-portraits gives a visual representation to these positive and negative voices, and lets me expose them and dispel their power.

In exploring the importance of self-portraiture in the historical context, it’s interesting to note how its importance has waned, even in this era when “selfies” are the apparently prevailing mode of popular artistic self-expression.  So, I fully embraced the opportunity to use my art to explore not just what the iPhone camera sees, but develop themes of masculinity, femininity, camp, and the influence of technology.  I hope that I’ve been able to demonstrate that the artist’s sense of self can be multifaceted and complex, changing and adapting.