If the body is a container of space in painting, what object could suggest that repository? How could a painted thing make the figure’s form present without the actual body being there?

I choose to paint belts as stand-ins for the body’s absence to defy and stay within a conversation about figurative painting.

By placing a tilted mirror on the floor, I observe my own body wearing a belt while painting. On the canvas, a loose perspective is created where the viewer seems to be kneeling below the figure. The belt hovers above to dominate or engage in a power play. This object holds the pants up, like a line to define the delicate, yet strong core of the body. The intermittent addition of a hand further gestures to the belt as a symbol of cinching, weight gain or loss, masculinity, and a fashion accessory.