Our memories of the people we love aren’t full scale photos, but more the recollections of the details that made them special to us– the softness of a grandmother’s hand, the freckles on a child’s face, the little particulars that make us unique.  In his work, New York painter Stephen Wright  gently records the minutia of a face, a lock of hair, the turn of a neck.

Occasionally, when  we sitting together, holding hands while watching Colbert or a movie, I am struck suddenly by the realization that when we’re old and perhaps Mr. F is no longer around, that my hands will remember what his felt like around mine.  That those physical memories will be more precious than any photograph could be.

Stephen Wright zeroes in on the minor details of his subjects bodies, we get the sense that we can almost feel what that skin is like, soft, maybe cool to the touch, or we feel the sharpness of a clavicle, the roughness of hair gone grey.  I love that his compositions often crop out the subject’s face, after all, we know the hands, feet, the shoulders of our loved ones just as well as their faces, but often fail to really think about how integral they are to our memories of them.  What about you, Artsies?  What details do you remember most about those you love?  I can still smell my grandmother’s perfume and know every freckle on my niece’s cheeks!

To see more of the work of Stephen Wright, please visit his website.

All images are via the artist’s website.