My Vitiligo Project is an extension of my "Facemotions' series which is inspired by the idea of featuring people's emotions onto their skin. In my paintings and performance art, I transform the traditional canvas workspace into a multi-dimensional stage, painting my subjects in real time. I create a painting which is used as a backdrop, set my subject in front of it and paint the emotion on the skin. Photography is used to capture the instant where all the layers combined (painting/ person/ emotion) fit what I want to convey. People with Vitiligo are beautiful people who feel ostracized in a normative society. When I started this series, it wasn't trendy yet to approach people with Vitiligo. I did because I was awe struck with the beauty of their skin which looks to me like it is an emotional landscape & breathing and living poetry. Since my focus was already on featuring people's emotions, I felt it was fortunate on many levels that people would accept to be part of my shoots. i cherish the trust and friendships that came out of this project.
My “Vitiligo” project was featured in an article on CNN.com in June 25, 2014:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/25/health/vitiligo-skin-disease/