Artwork / 2019 / Jeff

Jeff’s portrait is one of eleven I painted for The Future We Need, a book about collective bargaining and how it can be used by more than just labor unions. The others are of Allyson, Bettie, Cynthia, Deloris, Heather, Kimberly, Lidia, Rubynell, Sanchioni, Sarita, and Smiley. With this series, I returned to my roots as a portraitist. When I was first starting out, I painted everyone from local TV news personalities to men I had met online in collections of straightforward portraits, without the allegorical frills of a series like Apple Pie. It felt good to return to the understated elegance of the simple portrait.

You can watch the making of Jeff’s portrait.