In the spirit of spring, I thought it would be interesting to investigate the ever-growing power of woman as it connects to the role of the father in the story of the Prodigal Son. When I was a child my mother showed great enthusiasm for women’s issues, while at the same time was more than willing to put her own agendas aside to be a good parent to my sister and I. The mother is a parent to a society of sons who have abandoned her to create cultures where for centuries she has been held as a second class citizen. And even though she has not been given the same rights as the men who call her mother, she is still willing to care for them as her children.

As a painter, I feel the most intimate method of exploring the human experience is to do so through the portrait. In these paintings I have used the veil as a representation of the abandoned mother because of its symbolism in traditional religious beliefs. These are the beliefs that the woman is a sexual distraction between man and his god. More importantly, I want to show the feeling that this subject is wearing the veil under her own condition. Just like the father of the prodigal son accepted him back under his own condition. It is my opinion that in relation to the story of the prodigal son, the father is woman and we are all her lost sons