Pesya Altman

Artist Statement

My work is an exploration of the infinite variety of the human face. I am fascinated by the fact that no two countenances are the same, and I use the portrait as a vessel to tell stories. This focus intensified during the 2020 pandemic; today, living in chosen isolation in Worcester, far from my community, these faces have become my primary connection to the world.
My process begins with tactile immediacy—using pencil, charcoal, and pastel to capture likenesses from life, television, and photographs. These sketches serve as the foundation for my oil paintings, where the imagery shifts along a spectrum from realism to symbolism and expressionistic abstraction. In this collection of ten photos, my portraits act as a bridge between my solitude and the shared human experience.