'Pressure II' is a finalist in the Bayside Portrait Prize

Artist Statement:

I was looking at Artists such as Picasso and Degas at the time. I have loved the motif for a long time connecting with the pressure of life from a woman's perspective. Having to look good, keeping house, raise children, maintain a career.....and the list goes on. Maybe they are just pressures we put on our selves. But I wanted to reinterpret that story. My intent was to capture the adrenalin energy we seem to survive on these days. The marks showing movement and change were important for me to leave, there is a remanence of an arm moving from reading the paper to ironing and a cup of coffee to get the day started. My model was selected because she is a police woman, and an award winning body builder. I have been playing with the pictorial space too, introducing patterns to flatten the space.