I first fell in love with paintings when I saw works in museums with life sized figures. I loved how this scale gave the impression that the people were right there in the room with you. While I initially worked life size I eventually transitioned to making mostly smaller works with a few larger ones thrown in here and there. Several years ago my passion for painting larger returned with a vengeance and since then working on larger pieces has captured most of my attention.

I painted a small version of this piece years ago and it was always one of my favorites. I decided to paint a life size version to keep for myself. I reworked the composition, shifting the background around, creating a completely different poster, and adding more details including the “I Love NY” sticker on the door, “PANDA” scratched into the wall, and her diamond panda ring. I spent almost two years working on this piece on and off. When I finally finished it I loved it so much that I thought it would be a shame to keep it hidden away in my studio where no one could see it so I decided to include it in this show.