“I decided I would begin where Warhol and pop art left off...After holding a contest within my studio to find the best red carpet face from the constant river of images, a composite was made from the best of the best of Pattinson’s expressions. The colorful and detailed Louis Vuitton background was to suggest a fictitious brand endorsement context that was commensurate with his position as the most popular member of the group. The difficulty became not how to render his face so he could be seen, but how to paint his presence so he could be inescapably felt when standing in front of the painting. My painting of Robert Pattinson began to fulfill its intention of giving pause, to question our relationship to the constant appearance and simultaneous dismissal of our disembodied selves in relation to a system that generates a forced intimacy with commercially enforced exceptionalism.”
