Butterfly Tattoo Portraits, Artist Statement

I started making this work the week before Covid lockdowns started. I was lonely and felt disconnected from a greater sense of community. I had hosted a group show about a year earlier, and of the handful of artists showing work, we discovered that about half of us had butterfly tattoos (I have one too.) I was surprised to find deep meaning in that serendipity, and I imagined a thread between us- one that I strung up myself when I got my tattoo. I started to imagine this thread between myself and all the other people in the city who have butterfly tattoos. It felt like a subtle intertwining of our stories. The portraits represent both the sitters as they are, and my longing for connection and collective. It's also a celebration of chosen identity: tattoos and portraiture both affirm art's ability to deepen our vision of who we choose to be.