Featured: Bubbling #1, Oil on wood panel, 4’ diameter, $5,000.00

Over the pandemic, I struggled a lot until the spring of 2021, when I began to think about returning to working with the human figure. I had been dealing with many feelings around isolation, introspection and eventually renewal and I wanted to express this somehow in my work.

I have used the circle format off and on and I found myself drawn to it again to explore these feelings. I wanted to create images of naked figures encased inside spheres or bubbles that slightly obscure various body parts. In some of the images, it is not immediately apparent that there is a figure inside. I purposely wanted to create a mystery and duality for the viewer to explore.

I started with an image of myself (which is the one included in this post) and asked some friends and family members to volunteer an image of themselves for me to use as reference material. The participants were not directed by me in terms of what kind of attitude or position to take other than their bodies had to be able to fit into a 4’ circular format and they had to be nude.

It has been an interesting experience for me in my dealings with the participants as I asked them to contribute an image of themselves in a very vulnerable state without any indication of the outcome of the final image. It was important to me that each person relate their own psychological state with their pose without my input. I simply asked them to imagine what it would feel like to be inside a translucent sphere. Would they feel trapped, protected, safe or exposed? Would they want out or prefer to stay inside?

I chose bubbles because they are spheres that are translucent, colourful and full of air. They express a certain levity but also fragility in that they can pop at any moment and disintegrate into the atmosphere. However, if these spheres are perceived as marbles, then they might evoke solidity, entrapment and indestructability. Any interpretation is valid.

The scale is important as they are close to life size so that everyone viewing them can relate physically to the experience, imagining what it would be like to be the figure inside.  We all began our lives in this kind of environment and so it is embedded into our memory and experience in a very profound way.

The duality of the image causes the viewer to focus on either the outside of the sphere or the inside as they move across the image. We have spent a lot of time looking out of windows, into screens, into other people’s windows, at devices and probably at mirrors, more during the past few years than in our entire lives. This has caused some of us to have new or different experiences of how we look at ourselves both on the inside and the outside.

In some cases this has been a negative experience as we may have put ourselves under too much scrutiny while for others this may have created an experience of noticing details and nuances that they did not have time to notice previously.

As the pandemic dust settles and we re-emerge, we are left with the residual feelings and in some cases traumas that will stay with us for the foreseeable future. 

This work is not meant to be a bleak commentary which is why I have used bright colours. My hope is that you will feel invited to peer into the spheres, to reflect on the past few years, and that you will feel a connection that will resonate deeply within as you contemplate this stage in our shared human story.