A few months ago I decided to draw a series of pencil portraits. At that time, I was seeing my friends and family posting mask wearing selfies to social-media... and a lightbulb went off. There was something about reducing the human face’s expressive capabilities to the eyes that appealed to me. I also liked the idea of promoting mask wearing through art. So, I started a series of masked pencil portraits. You will see in this series different kinds of people, kids and adults, male and female, all wearing masks, conveying their individuality through subtle means. Of course, the larger message is that we’re all doing our part to stop the spread of COVID.

My name Matt Faulknor and I’m a television producer. I live in Toronto with my wife and two kids. For a long time I dabbled in art but never really took it seriously. Art was something I did once in a while, wArith minimum effort, often confined to doodles in the margins of notebooks. The last couple years, however, I’ve been giving my art the time and attention it deserves. It's difficult, to be honest, but it’s also extremely rewarding. I guess you could say, I'm now on an artistic journey and I don’t know where it will take me. This is the first art show I've ever applied for, but it won’t be the last.
Instagram: @marginaldoodles