New Studies

Thought I'd share a couple little studies done with Golden OPEN acrylics- they're closer to oils than any other acrylic paint I've used! These are 8x10 on wood panel.

New Lost Boys of Sudan portrait: Apajok

Did my first Lost Girl portrait. Here is an excerpt from her interview:

"There are Lost Girls here too, but people don’t hear about them because Sudanese culture. Guys are always want to be more known than the woman. We are fine because that’s what we’re used to.

The war start when I was 5. I mean, it had been going on before I was even born. When we run away from our village I was with my grandmother and my mom was away with my father because my father was sick and she had to take him to Kapoeta. When we ran away we didn’t have anybody. My older sister was 18 so that was good and my grandma was really old and she couldn’t go anywhere so we just left her in the building. We left her. It was really bad. We have seen a lot of bad stuff, a lot of killing, a lot of children being stolen away. Plus a lot of woman have children, but were not able to protect them because their husband have ran away or their husband are fighting.

So it’s bad. It still haunt us to today- we still dream about it we still have bad dreams. If we don’t pray before we go to bed, we will quick have a bad dream."

New Lost Boys of Sudan portrait: William

Finished this portrait of William Kuol Mayom. Here is a small excerpt from his interview:

"I was 7 when I was separated from my family. I am from Bor. It actually started simply. It was one evening when I was a kid, and we were playing outside- it was around 3:00, and my mom went to collect firewood. And that day my dad was taking care of our animals- cows. So we were there playing, as I said around 3:00, what we hear is the sound of a gun. Ta-koom, ta-koom, ta-ta-ta-ta-ta! We hear the sound of machine guns. And we were excited- we thought it was something good, you know, we were kids!

Within a few minutes, a lot of people come running out of town towards the east. We still don’t understand what is going on. And we’re scared because our mom is not at home. I was playing with some friends, and at that moment- all my friends, we were playing- like the neighbors-  every one of them disappear, running in different directions, because they want to go to their houses.

I was crying, sitting down crying, and one of my cousins came and he found me alone. He said “Just run! Run!”. And then I just follow him, and that’s how it started."

New work: This and That

This and That, 2013. Acrylic on panel. Diptych: 25" x  33" and 19" x 33"

New Lost Boys of Sudan portrait: Thon

After a bit of a "pause" to move across the country from Brooklyn, NY to LA and then have a baby (!!!) I'm starting back up on this project. I can't believe it's been so long but I'm really motivated to get back to work because I think the Lost Boys' stories are important.

I've done lots of smaller paintings in the time since we moved in November 2010- due to lack of space, time and some physical restraints. Plus, I was just tired. But now that my baby is 16 months old I have a little more time and a lot more motivation!

I'm going to try to post more regularly on here. I also have a new series I'm working on that is re-energizing my love for painting as a medium and the the journey of discovery through paint. I'll be working on the Lost Boys portraits at the same time and posting those as I go!

Won grant from RHCF!

I'm excited to announce that I've received a 2009 grant from the Ruth and Harold Chenven foundation! See details here: http://www.chenvenfoundation.org/winningartists.htm