Miles Shapiro

Artist Statement

Like most artists. I will steal a good idea without guilt. Many of those ideas come from other artists. I paint a lot of portraits and as will surprise none, I value the appropriations I’ve snatched from classical artist as well as contemporary ones. Those contemporary artist include the obvious (Lucien Freud, Jenny Saville) and other artist friends whose work I admire. Currently, I’m focused on storytelling via portraiture. (I kinda stole this idea from my wife, Jill, who wanted to embellish portraits by peppering her canvas with smaller images relating to the main (larger) subject’s past and present while presenting a standard portrait amidst the smaller images. I loved the idea of providing layering, texture