Every new body of work begins with a question.
Every new body of work begins with a question.
“Working the Blade” (11” x 14” Acrylic on Canvas) is the next progression of two series that have become central to my work as a painter: “Hands that Feed Us” and “Nocturne”. This new series is called: “Every Sunrise Has a Price”.
“Hands that Feed Us” explored the lives of migrant agricultural farm workers—the people whose labor sustains us but who are often invisible. “Nocturne” turned inward, examining solitude, vulnerability, and the quiet psychological spaces that exist after dark.
“Every Sunrise Has a Price” brings those ideas together.
I am interested in painting the people society depends upon while pretending they don’t exist. Sex workers occupy one of those uncomfortable spaces in American life. They are judged, desired, protected, exploited, condemned, and ignored, often all at the same time.
These paintings are not about sensationalism or moral judgment. They are about labor, dignity, survival, and the complex humanity of people whose lives are rarely examined beyond stereotype.
As with my previous work, my goal is not to tell viewers what to think. It is simply to ask them to look.
- Michael James