I didn’t notice I wasn’t alone (2003-2004)

I didn’t notice I wasn’t alone

I don’t know if it’s you or me or the same thing

I don’t know how you got here stranger

Post-9/11 in a nation preoccupied with asserting indomitable force to man-made fear of constant threat; masculinity was in flux.

I was looking at paintings by Richard Diebenkorn modeled by the psychologist Phyllis Diebenkorn, his wife, in the 1950s and 60s. Femininity was in flux; a female figure constrained though sometimes dodging dependence on masculine control and quietly asserting sovereignty.

I turned to the male figure in a domestic space, positioning him in relation to her, and assuming rather than polarizing dynamic femininity.