“I don’t want these women to disappear, because before there is the opportunity to live on you have to get documented,” says Rebecca Campbell, a Los Angeles-based artist and Cal State Fullerton assistant professor. “So I decided to paint their portraits.”

Motivated by the lack of gender equity in the creative world, and in homage to the artists who inspire her, Campbell began her You are Here project in Fall 2015. “I am not interested in making photographic portraits; I don’t sort people out by what they make,” states Campbell, “I just choose people who are serious, diligent, hard working, and good at what they do.” Campbell makes each painting with the same dimensions (30 x 22 1⁄2 in. [76.2 x 56.5 cm]), using paper that she primes with a custom pink acrylic paint. She then employs a limited palette of black, white, and gray to build the portrait. Although she approaches each work with identical parameters, Campbell imbues each portrait with a unique sense of identity, capturing their likeness with bold and gestural brushstrokes. Each sitter meets the gaze of the viewer, with her strengths and vulnerabilities candidly conveyed. Beyond subject matter, these works are a celebration of painting itself, and the quality of imagery that can only be brought forth with paint and brush. As Campbell states, “I believe deeply in process being content.”

An exhibition of these portraits is now on view at the Kwon Fong Gallery of Art and Culture at Cal Luthern University through April 6, 2017.