Artwork / high school and college / Self-portrait

This painting marks the beginning of what has become my signature style. I painted it when I was just 16 years old and, even then, I knew it was something special, but only because of the way other people reacted to it. Art is a social endeavor and any artist that tunes out their audience completely will eventually get lost. It’s only in striking the right balance between self-expression and communication that an artist makes work of any real value. For example, the reaction to this political painting helped ground me as I made this one.