I have always had a complicated relationship with the family album, not enjoying rifling through the myriad of familiar and unknown faces. I felt both connected and very distant. Memories would be stirred up - not always comfortable and not always my own.

 

My practice for some time has been predominantly painting portraits, usually from life, and though still interested in the identity and the individual I wanted to shake up my practice on the MFA.

 

I began by painting postcard-sized images of the typical pictures that could belong in anyone’s albums- almost a collective memory. The swimming lessons, first bike ride and child on the beach, all photographs seen in a multitude of albums, idealised images of childhood. By painting on such a small scale and with the faces partly in shadow there was some ambiguity as to the subjects of the paintings.

 I worked on a small scale as this added intimacy to the image - engaging the viewer by drawing them up close.

I displayed the paintings in a wooden box, so they would be seen as something precious- a collected item, and they could be taken out, handled, turned over to see the postcard lines on the back, as many old photographs have this. I looked at the work of Pamela Golden, an artist whose small-scale paintings have a strong narrative.