The Power of Redemptive Paintings

I was trying to do a portrait of a woman friend of mine who was a paraplegic. And I found that there was something redemptive and something powerful about fighting against this other image. So my choices were being based not on a white canvas, but they were based on what fit into the context of this old image. It was like I was, in a sense redeeming the past, which is kind of the way I thought about her life.