THE ZOOM PORTRAITS
I have always concentrated on the intimacy of the studio experience. When my collaborators and I describe our lives to each other, I always try to match their honesty. In the studio, we spend hours, weeks, even months, in physical proximity. There’s no substitute for being in the presence of each other’s bodies. I love this opportunity for observational accuracy and compositional surprise.
However, in 2020, Covid made this impossible. It took me months to come out of my panic. I could not imagine going forward without those intense and cloistered sessions.
Eventually, I decided to try to make portraits over Zoom. I began with a small sketch of Alice Wong and then went forward.
These resultant works came out of long sessions of posing and talking through my laptop. I drew my collaborators from very long distances, whether cross-country or cross-continents.
While I missed the studio experience, I am grateful to know that I have another option for getting to know someone, for intimate exchange, no matter where we are.
