SUMMER SOLSTICE PORTRAITS

For this work, I drew a portrait of my emotional state, every hour during the summer solstice, to record how I felt as the day and night unfolded. The drawings were made wherever I happened to be (at home, in bed, in bars, in cabs, and in the spaces between) to create a record of both my changing physical and emotional state and the passage of time.

As the hours progressed, the effects of exhaustion became visible in the work itself. Color gradually disappears as the need for sleep becomes more urgent, while shapes, marks, and expressions become increasingly distorted and intuitive. The portraits reflect the shifting perception that comes with sleep deprivation, documenting a gradual loss of concentration, control, and visual clarity.

Beginning with the 2026 summer solstice, the work will continue as an ongoing series made every summer and winter solstice. The changing lengths of daylight provide a natural framework for examining cycles of time, wakefulness, exhaustion, and renewal. Each 24-hour period becomes both a physical endurance and a visual record of where I am (internally and externally) at that particular point in the year.