My Lisa 5: Secret Scandalous Gossip

Oil on canvas.

36x36"

This oil painting was included in Woman Made Gallery's Group Exhibition "Girlfriends" in May 2024. It is part of a series called “My Lisas,” about coming-of age friendships, beauty, nostalgia, regret, guilt, love, loss and loneliness. The young women I depict exist in that beautiful, vulnerable and strange moment between youth and adulthood. I leverage the powerful memories evoked by this time in my life.

The figures are inspired by photos I take at music festivals. Within the paintings are short personal essays I have written about close friends who are no longer in my life. I write honestly about people who enhanced or complicated my life, challenged or completed me for a time. I express my emotions in an unashamed way, exploring how these special friendships truly felt and why they end.

I paint my figures in high-contrast monochromatic gray tones, and I paint the words in bright glossy colors, so they appear as an overlay, separate and above the image. With this gentle collision of words and image, I strive to create something that connects us more deeply to ourselves and to one another.

I hope these paintings evoke a sense of recognition in viewers, leading them to reflect on the impact of friends they’ve had who are no longer in their lives.