This piece was created as a final project for a figure painting course I took, meant to emulate a masterpiece and make it our own by inserting our faces into it. As an African American woman, it was hard finding a typical “old masterpiece” to see myself in, so I took a step out and chose a more modern piece to better suit my features (based on a work by @orphans_inc on Instagram)!
I found this painting to be highly reflective of my dual-sidedness when it comes to my personality; sometimes mundane with only undertones and shadows of hue, while other times life decides to explode into a range of vibrancy and pattern. Color always speaks in my work and I think the mashup here urges you to also view yourself in a similar luminous duality!
