In Embers, I explore the porous boundaries of the self and how a sense of identity takes shape through the body, society, and the places we inhabit. The paintings approach these questions through heat. Color draws attention to where warmth gathers across a face or a hand, making visible an aspect of bodily presence we usually sense without seeing. I begin with a thermal camera, which maps infrared radiation as color, recording bodies at rest, in motion, and in proximity to one another. I shift the colors of these images and rebuild the forms in layers of oil paint, using a textured ground that intensifies the color.