Hannah

From Hannah's earrings to the triangle grid that is based on a poster from the Thirteenth Secession Exhibition, the subject matter in this painting is heavily influenced by Art Nouveau. The colors are based on Hannah, the girl in the photograph that the painting is about, and the environment surrounding her when the photo was taken. But the subject of this painting is painting itself more than Hannah because the painting is abstract. It is about the syntax and subject of a painting in relation to that of a photograph. The idea of combining abstract increments beside photographic increments is not to revive illusionism. There is no illusion or traditional realism in the painting at all.
This painting is about distortion of our perception of reality. It shows that the language of painting as the antithesis of the way we perceive our reality. What seems realistic, the photographic increments within the painting, are records of abstract mark-making based on information from a camera. And the seemingly abstract increments are real measurements of the area of this painting as an object that exists in our space.
The photographic elements are records of the transcription of the information from a photograph onto a canvas. The striped increments serve as interuptions in the photographic information so that each increment of the painting can be read individually. The act of reading it becomes a situation in itself, and it becomes less static. It is an extension of the Photorealist concern of making Process Art based on a photograph.