The subjects from my Portraits are pulled from different regions of the South to emerge in this jarring group of paintings. The blaze orange charges the space with a tension by virtue of its intensity and it signals to the color’s use as a cautionary measure. The urban sprawl and its impact on the natural world is something that continues to unsettle me, but more importantly, the wildlife that call it home. This phenomenon is also plain-to-see in failing city centers, increased air pollution, harm to groundwater supplies, contaminated runoff, and flooding. I cannot think of anything more decidedly human than painted portraits to confront this growing problem among humans. These paintings stumble freely between portrait and self-portrait as a way of inserting myself and those I care for into this unbalanced equation.