Painting: ID

Artist's Statement This is the portrait of "I Don’t Know Whom." "ID." An unidentified Muslim American woman in Florida made headlines when she sued the state for the right to wear a niqab—a face veil—for her driver’s license photo. We need not know her name. Beneath the veil, identity dissolves—she, he, they, or someone else entirely. Religious freedom is a fundamental right. Yet, the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles insists that public safety demands clear identification. Still, some would argue: God is God. Later, she was convicted of aggravated battery and sentenced to 18 months of probation after twin 3-year-old girls in her foster care were hospitalized with bruises and injuries. The niqab committed no crime. But the person beneath it did.