When we look at a piece of art, the natural tendency is to focus right in on the work itself – concentrating on the composition, the subject, the colours, lines, etc. One element that is commonly overlooked in understanding the impact of a piece is its size.

What if the Mona Lisa was a mural? We would lose the intimacy that comes with a painting that small. Similarly, what if Picasso’s “Guernica” was the size of the Mona Lisa? The subject and gravity of that painting is larger than the artist and the viewer. The impact would be less had it been a small canvas.

As I approached the I’m Not Here series, most of the works focus on finding oneself, depression  and feeling overwhelmed – which is why I chose larger canvases. The smaller figure in a large expanse expresses a feeling of being lost.

For this next series, I was looking to portray  anxiety and unease – in this case, smaller canvases work much better. Smaller canvases with the figures filling most of the canvas convey a claustrophobic feeling, one of unease.

Each canvas in this series is only 12” x 16” and I will share each of the four in the coming weeks.

The first in this series, is entitled Where You End and I Begin