Lies and butterflies

The student gallery exhibition I participated in, called "Redefinition", opened last Friday the 13th. It was exciting to see it all come together and as far as I could tell it was well received by everyone. It's nice to know our hard work paid off. I'm glad I got the chance to be a part of his exhibition and that I got to work with some of my very talented friends. I'm really proud of the end result. I'm not sure how long the exhibit will stay up, but I think at least through the summer term, which ends August 11.

My piece is called "Portrait of a Regal Buffoon". When I was told that the theme of the exhibit was portraiture and that we also had to somehow extend the painting onto the wall, I decided it would be interesting to play around with the deceiving nature of portraits. 

(And because a few people asked, I should also add that this is not a self-portrait. I based this character's features on the My Scene doll because I wanted her face to have a very manufactured look.)

Portraits can be planned out and edited to make the subject appear to be whatever they want. In this case, the subject sits on a throne looking powerful and regal. But this is just a portrait, and the real face of the subject is hiding behind it. I call her a buffoon because she is a fool and a coward for thinking a facade is all she needs to be someone worthy of respect and admiration. While the viewer has no way of knowing what she's really like, the title and the quirky background hint that what they see in the portrait isn't exactly what it seems.

The portrait portion is oil on wood panel and the rest is acrylic applied to the wall.

Besides my piece, I also painted several butterflies and a few ladybugs around the gallery per Kellen's suggestion. I think it was a great idea.

If you haven't seen the exhibition I highly recommend you do! My piece is only one out of seven awesome pieces featured in the gallery.