Ways of Seeing I am interested in people’s emotions, specifically how an emotion from within becomes visible as a facial expression. Living in different places challenges a person to adapt to the environment and a new way of thinking in a different culture. My personal experience living in a variety of places has, at times, left me feeling uncertain, confused and even conflicted. This has become the inspiration for my current body of work.  I have chosen to describe psychological states through abstract portraits. I refer to pictures of friends, strangers and myself while painting. I distort and deform the facial structure by combining contrasting or analogous expressions. These expressions convey feelings of uncertainty and confusion, whether they are conscious or not. My compositions and abstract forms open the imaginary window for the viewer to explore my work freely.  In my painting process, organic shapes, colors and lines point out the phenomenon of conflict and feeling of impact. They can be very extreme or moderate. Levels of emotions are built by a process, which is involving a dialogue between lines, painted form and texture. This process of painting becomes an intersection where my life experience and my idea about painting collide, creating an ongoing dialogue between my work and myself.