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Untitled

Alley, Reagan
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Student Artwork, 2016 Spring, Paintings, Art and Art History, Department of
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Abstract
Artist's statement: " This painting was inspired by paper mache objects that I made as part of my preparation process. I built several round objects shaped like contact lenses out of aluminum foil, and I covered them with paper mache and gouache and then painted them with acrylic. I constructed various sizes of ovals and circles, and each one held the face of someone important in my life. I loved creating these, because I felt such a personal connection to them. It was also very difficult, because I know their faces so well, so it was hard to make sure each painting actually looked like them. Something that was really successful in this painting was my ability to loosen up my brushstrokes. Instead of having to be very tight and almost anal about facial features, I forced myself to use bigger brushes so that my strokes couldn’t be so measured and careful. Through this process, I discovered that bigger strokes actually made my paintings more interesting. Two of the most successful faces were the ones with the black background and the fish eye effect (on the top third from the left and the second from the left) because they are the loosest. The ability to relax with my strokes and not worry about things being so realistic was really refreshing and actually helped me to make marks that are more descriptive than photorealism! Another very successful element was my choice to paint on a constructed object. The shape of the object and their individual characters helped contribute a weirdness to each little painting that made them more interesting. The composition of the paintings gave it an almost scientific feel, like specimens or collected objects, which was also aided by my careful treatment of many of them. In the future, I would like to experiment with making a larger constructed object to paint. I would also really like to loosen my brushstrokes even more, and perhaps to experiment with figurative painting, rather than faces or in addition to faces. Overall, I believe that this painting was very helpful in showing me how to be looser with my painting and to think of unusual surfaces to incorporate with my paintings." This is a digital photograph of Alley Reagan's painting. It was submitted as an assignment in the spring 2016 Intermediate/Advanced Painting class taught by Professor Erin Harmon.
Description
This image was photographed and uploaded to DLynx in the Visual Resources Center during spring 2016.