During 2019, I sent out a request on both my personal and professional Instagram accounts via the 'story' feature asking for individuals who would be comfortable with me using them as subjects so I could get more practice with human portraiture. I expected to get a few responses, but not nearly as many as I ended up getting, and I felt such a rush of love and support for my art. I was happy to hear back from friends, but the most impactful part of this experience was getting this kind of openness and support from distant acquaintances, old co-workers, and former peers.

 

Initially these pieces were solely going to be for practice, both with portraiture and charcoal (a material I hadn't worked with in years), but after starting to create them, I realized that I wanted to compile them into this important, personal series. I have titled it Pillars, as in support pillars: the people that are standing idly by, helping to lift me up in all of my artistic endeavors.