I began these pear paintings thinking of Renoir saying “my goal in painting the nude is to paint them as beautiful fruit;” I set out to paint my own beautiful fruit, first painting them posed as Western canonical nudes. In my recent body of work, I’m interested in them having their own internal lives, acting out themes related to my own that include the search for community, transition in young adulthood, sexuality, the sharing of knowledge, and relationships with one’s body.