Both doing one’s hair/ makeup and putting up Christmas decorations involve projecting a contrived image to the outer world. It’s also about keeping to traditions and rituals, and a sense that if things look good then they are good. I want to use painting to think about that mask—about what it projects and what it hides. How might a painting put on a good face but carry an inner darkness? How might something garish or grotesque hold the warmth of family memories?