The title of this series of lithograph portraits is taken from Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address and is the lesser-known half of the phrase, the “better angels of our nature.” Using the intense, almost sculptural mark-making that stone lithography is known for, I draw these portraits directly from life onto the stone using black lithography crayons and the reductive method of scraping with blades and sandpaper. This process creates the distressed chiaroscuro that speaks to our dual natures. We humans, capable of singing like angels and building towers to the heavens, also kill, hate, and harm. Are we beautiful or ugly, these portraits ask, or varied combinations of both?
