Dezana Paints Faces

After years of drawing and painting figuratively this piece represents the time in my career when I realized my future work would take a new direction. As this self portrait took shape I felt the only way to 'back it' was to pixilate and paint tiny abstract artworks in all the little squares behind me. As I was also experimenting with contemporary quilt art in those years, particularly the bargello method; the piecing together of background squares held significance and seemed a way to integrate my many visual interests.

At the time I found my self so close the the canvas in my oil portrait work that when I started experimenting with large, loose, colorful abstract painting the feeling of freedom overtook me. The abstract squares in the background mimic the symbolic freedom of the American flag via a color inversion of the rectangle in the upper left corner.