Swollen, 2024, 13 x 17”
Acrylic, mixed media art waste (including watercolor, spray paint, paper, resin, and lightbulbs) on canvas
K.C. MacPhail and Ray Bernoff
“Swollen” expresses our experience with pain caused by chronic inflammation, marrying Ray’s waste-based art practice with K.C.’s portraiture to create something swollen and suffocating. The subject is exhausted, resigned to their pain, letting the bits and pieces of agitation close over them.
My husband K.C. and I collaborated on this piece for ArtsWorcester’s 2025 juried show Fusion. He painted the portrait at the center, and I added the “frame” of red-painted trash to go around it.
This piece was a lot of fun to make. Despite both being lifelong artists and writers, knowing each other for 18 years and being in a relationship for 12 of those, K.C. and I have not collaborated too many times. After this, we have a renewed interest in making visual art together!
See more of my art, or check out ‘Daily Essentials‘, the other piece I collaborated on for Fusion.
