Cellblock One, 2022

These studies of vintage mugshots started over the Covid lockdowns. As always, my girls were mirroring my experience. This time it was the feeling of being confined. I’d been collecting some vintage police photos of incarcerated women that I thought were touching and intriguing. After researching the photos I became invested in their stories, Their faces looked like melting candles and rotten fruit, reminding me of the figures by Otto Dix and Kees Van Dongen. The first few paintings I finished were loosely inspired by real police photos. As the series progressed, I started developing my own characters. I hadn’t intended this to be a full series, but eventually it became one female mugshot for every decade of the 20th century.