I began making family portraits at the time of my brother’s death. I tried to get at buried emotions beyond actual likenesses of my parents and my brother. There are distortions in these portraits. Some are even quite grotesque.

When it became too intense and sad to be focused on the death of my brother John, I turned to painting from news photos–people in war zones, women struggling with floods and earthquakes, and men and women out of work. Painting those portraits made me feel I was part of life–dealing with tragedy like so many others. Somehow it helped.