My recent paintings express my own ambivalence and trepidation in relation to the contemporary male’s transition into adulthood. They are made of collages with images appropriated from found photographs of myself and close friends, and their formal and compositional elements suggest an ambiguous narrative.

Often, figures will appear with their arms or feet “amputated” by having been moved in from the border of the original cropped image. Rather than restoring the missing parts, I leave them disturbed as a metaphor for what could be seen as the figures’ weakness, which contrasts strongly with their complacency, confidence, and, ironically, machismo.