IDENTITY

The Identity Series extends my Art/Science/Medicine inquiry into the anatomy of difference, resemblance, and perception. It explores how identity is formed, not only through visible traits but also through internal data that is rarely seen and often misinterpreted.

Comprising eight 47” x 23” backlit Plexiglas panels, each work features a portrait, often of individuals from diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds. Surrounding these portraits are embedded CT scans, MRIs, and DNA sequencing gels. These medical images, reimagined as expressive symbols, evoke biological inheritance, invisible histories, and interior experience rather than clinical diagnosis.

Used metaphorically, DNA strands suggest ancestral continuity; CT scans and MRIs hint at the unknowable workings of body and psyche; ghostly anatomical forms recall trauma, resilience, and emotional scars. By pairing portraiture with interior imaging, the series questions how we perceive identity. Are we defined by surface appearance—skin, gender, dress—or by memory, genetics, and lived medical experience? Can scientific data be truly neutral, or does it reflect cultural bias and interpretation?

Together, the panels form a dialogue of contrast and commonality. Identity is essential to empathy, reminding us that personhood is layered, multifaceted, and often misread.