Focus Tension is my duo exhibition with Sarah Cotton at PLATO.  The title comes from the adjustable resistance on a microscope’s knobs, that dynamic balance between concentration and strain, and it describes exactly what Sarah and I are both after: control over how much of a subject’s physique and emotional life gets revealed, and how much stays guarded.

My own paintings center on quiet, solitary moments: self-portraits and images of female friends caught within close quarters, in instances familiar to any woman living alone. I’m interested in the subject’s awareness of her own body, and in catching the gap between how she experiences herself and how she might look to someone watching when she isn’t conscious of being seen.