Black Haired Girls (2002 - 2014)
30" by 36" Mixed Media
Black Haired Girls is an extension of my obsession with the simplified and iconic images of silent film star, Louise Brooks’ simple black helmet bob. Working with numerous real life black haired women as subjects, the series attempts to idealize and capture the essence of my retinue of female friends and acquaintances. Working from original photographs, the large format collages begin as a process in black negative space. Paper is layered, usually in five sheets or less, to recreate a realistic representation of the women. The hair and background remain the original black as the process continues. Eventually, the backgrounds are populated with paper abstractions and/or images that are a distillation of subject personality or nature.