"Braindead (Georgia Birth)" (2026) Oil on canvas. 72"x96" total (54"x48" and 72"x60" canvases)
 
This piece is inspired by the women who've been braindead in the state of Georgia and kept on life support in order to give birth to the baby. Georgia is one of the states where women don't have the right to their own body. These cases particularly unsettle me because this seems one step away from using women as mindless birthing vessels.
 
The painting is made up of two canvases of different sizes to show the disconnect. The female figures lie passive, their heads all on the right canvas, while the male and authority figures are on the left canvas. One of the figure's eyes are open yet are grey and lifeless. The figure all the way on the right references Mantegna's "Lamentation of Christ" (c. 1480). The cops on the left are symbolic of the violence/authority of the state. His hand is ready on his gun to make sure the doctor complies and the women stay submissive (dead). The right panel has a table of gynecological tools and the shadow of a head is cast onto the side: is this the shadow of the viewer watching the scene unfold? The overall yellow, unrealistic space is meant to convey and emotional rather than literal space, since this is a slight exaggeration based on my own anxieties of real events that aren't too far from the content of the painting. 
 
On demand prints can be made available upon request.