by Peter Keefer

Masks are a cover for the life within, being decorative, ceremonial, realistic, abstract or combinations thereof. They can disguise, reveal, distort, emphasize, announce, antagonize, celebrate, instruct, or proselytize. A Bishop’s mitre, for example, is as much a mask as a New Guinea hunting mask.

The skull, to me, is also a mask, one that requires the life within to have left before revealing itself. It then becomes iconic, to be used as any other mask might be used, to express different purposes and positions.

I had been working on masks off and on for some years when the Sandy Hook shootings affected a change in how I thought and dealt with the idea of masks.

Masks hide, but they also show, because most are made to look through and therefore the ultimate mask is the human face, a changeable mask. Thoughts turned into work, about a dozen images in the last few years.