A Traverse City, Michigan-based, expressive, figurative artist, I draw directly from life, working with friends, family or models in real time to capture the presence and psychology of the human figure. Using traditional techniques, I build images through layered marks, tonal shifts, and expressive line. Each piece is both an observation and a record of attention — a way of staying with the complexity of another person’s body in space.
I work at or near life scale. This allows the drama of structure, gesture, and surface to come forward without distraction. My images sit between classical draftsmanship and raw immediacy: likeness is important, but not at the expense of tension, distortion, or feeling.
In these works, I’m asking what it means to see and be seen — to hold a pose, to endure scrutiny, to resist it. The marks track time and decision. They are as much about process as they are about the subject, yet the subject remains central: someone real, present, and alive in the room with me.
Amanda Boyd Yin 