Face-off (2024)

Oil Painting

44” by 30”

Most of my paintings don’t come from a prompt, but this one did. The prompt from my teacher was “inside vs. outside,” and I immediately thought about my relationship to my bedroom window. I am terrified of pigeons. As a New Yorker, this isn’t great, considering that the moment I leave my home, I have to face my fear. On occasion, that fear travels up 8 floors and sits on my air conditioner. I always run to the window and tap on it to make the pigeon fly away. This moment is always a face-off between me and the bird. My fear is completely irrational, and something I’d like to get over, but there is something indescribable about that moment of complete and utter chaos when the outside world wants to come in.