Fat Venus is the primary subject of the paintings. I am only using my own form and portrait to embody this figure, who is unrepressed and unafraid, to overcome the formidable trope of insecurity. So, these are not self-portraits, but an exploration of a dreamt world, and a fabricated self. Divinity is determined by size in this universe, because greater surface area catches more light. Venus’s ample, puffy belly calls you to the action of looking. The paintings heavily reject realism, embrace naturalism, and build upon a fantastical, imagined universe. The figures in these paintings exist fully and unabashedly; they are liberated from the voyeur, and bask in their own hedonism. There is a recurring motif of flight and lightness in the paintings, contrasted with weight and heaviness. What these paintings fundamentally represent is the instinctual obligation to express feeling, in all of its forms, using my own fleshy form as a catalyst and as the primary subject. These paintings are actively evolving, and ultimately, becoming.