Within Jan van Eyck’s The Wedding Portrait, husband and wife touch one another in a kind, refined gesture, embellished in wealth, graced in blessings. This Netherlandish painting created centuries ago with its illusion of idealism and a perfect union inspires the works in Family Sittings.  Contemporary families that are the product of long-term commitments and support of one another are presented. Referencing historical painted family portraiture, the families sit dressed in formal attire in their living room.  However, it is only their clothing and earthly possessions which surround them that is painted.

These families comprise a diversity of religion, ethnicity, social class, and sexual orientation. The families’ identities are portrayed only through their material belongings, their bodies implied only by the mold of garments.  Each painting is filled with symbols, cues which may not lead to the metaphorical ritual as in van Eyck’s painting, but rather the inherited assumptions each of us has acquired in our lifetime. These paintings examine our hierarchies of the family archetype.