Final Project

I created four pieces, each with black charcoal in 3 different sizes. They each depict the body in a different way, shape and form. I used a hyperrealism technique to get my message across and created these in my bedroom where I could lock myself away from the prying eyes of the world. I wanted to get at the nature of the outside vs the inside body. While I depicted what appears to be the outside body, to the more observant, I also depicted the inside body as well. I'm not talking about internal organs. I'm talking about the intangible stuff that our minds and hearts subsist on. Such things have always fascinated me as well as thousands of others throughout history. The positions I chose for each piece suggest a hidden nature but if you look closely, it can be obvious. We tend to hide the things we feel day in and day out. We suppress them, push them down under layers of drugs, alcohol, sex, TV, stories, gossip, and other vices. We drown out our insides in a frantic attempt to hold ourselves together when really we're just trying to keep our heads above the water in the pit that we've dug ourselves into. Each position that is depicted shows a body seemingly healthy on the outside but implies a struggle on the inside. The hands that are covering the wrists. The fetal position covering the heart and mind from the constant oppression of the world we live in. The body turned away from the average viewer hiding any expression. The eyes that only too clearly call for help without making a single sound. The truth is, if we paid attention to the people around us, we'd be only too aware of the pain that every single one of us go through. It's too real, to raw for us to acknowledge so we bury it under a sea of frivolities.

I would say that I'm an artist that likes to grasp at the true nature of things. Truth is a slippery thing, often ignored and beaten down for a prettier lie. Not only is it evasive but it's rarely a singular concept. Each person has their own form of truth that may not necessarily match their peers. I try and uncover my own through my work. Each piece I create has a very personal note to it, whether the audience sees it or not. It has a piece of me hidden in it for the world to see, or at least the more perceptive of my audience. I draw inspiration from artists like Heather Hansen, who records her own kinetic energy on paper, Anders Rokkum with his startling depictions of emotions and the universe in the same plane, Shawn Coss and his brilliant depiction of mental diseases as physical beings, Eloy Morales and his stunning hyperreal paintings of people's faces and newborns, and Jono Dry's incredibly realistic depictions of the body close up and mixed with surrealism in a fantastic hybrid of the hyperreal and surreal.


https://www.eloymorales.es/obra-works/a-partir-de-la-cabeza-about-head/
http://www.jonodryart.com/
http://www.shawncossart.com/
http://www.heatherhansen.net/
http://rockum.tumblr.com/