Overhead Lighting

Painting from pictures of people when they look the ugliest--head jutting forward, stomach protruding, slouching beneach bright overhead lighting and naked in mid summer, their skin dappled with the uneven contact of sunlight. The light sends the shadows down their faces, dripping from the sockets of the eyes and out of the nose. I promised the subjects that no one would ever see these photos, and I flip the pictures facedown whenever someone visits.



I have not left Southern California at all this summer. Instead of travel, I've stayed inside during the day and worked until the sun sets and only then venturing outside to tend to my tiny herb garden and to swim slow laps in the pool filled with sidelong evening light.