Ivan Bridges

In my recent paintings I use my personal history, but I paint from impersonal images that are found. Images of human heads are an obsession of mine currently. I get these heads in online searches of vintage Polaroids, fashion photography, Greek and Roman sculpture, fetish, film stills, then I use various types of painterly distortion to drive in my own narratives through this imagery. Experiences that I want to focus on in the found material could be the memory of a lover, a friend, a deep sense of place or a time. It’s that leap from the personal though the impersonal that I look for. I can step outside of myself in this way, take away the usual meaning and find the unexpected more visceral truths.