Portrait Artist

Gwenn Seemel

Portrait Artist

Acrylic on Canvas

17x21

2005

Gwenn Seemel is a French-American artist who was raised part time in Brittany, France and part time in San Francisco. She attended Willamette University and now resides in Oregon with her sweetheart as a full time artist.

“Every portrait is a portrait of mortality and, subsequently, a portrait of a life consciously lived.  That’s the idea anyway.” –Seemel

This piece was created for a show titled Private Masks, Public Faces. It was a show that paid respect to people who worked in jobs relating to death, including mortuary workers and military (Private Masks). The Public Faces portion relates to a king’s portrait being commanded as deserving as much respect as the king’s flesh and blood. In other words respect to those who deserve it, but don’t get respected each day.

I chose this portrait because Seemel’s use of color and brush strokes really grabbed my attention. The use of color makes it seem as though the image is alive. The bright red jumps off of the page. There is such passion in this painting and it is contrasted with the simple smirk that is on the subject’s face. The brush strokes also really add to the intensity in this piece. I was amazed when I first saw this painting.

(Kyle Tossetti)

From Muscle Memory

Al Davison
From Muscle Memory

Oil on Canvas
18x12

2009

Al Davison is an Englishman who is not only a great painter and artist, but he also writes comics and graphic novels. His most famous novel is called “The Spiral Cage” an autobiographical graphic novel, which describes his lifelong struggle with spina bifida.

“Muscle memory in the context of this collection of work refers to not only the physical aspect, but to the whole idea of learned responses. We learn from the media what ‘beauty’ is supposed to be, how we are supposed to feel and think about our bodies. These works explore a different aesthetic through the supposedly ‘disabled’, & ‘deformed’ via the classic nude.” –Davison

In other words, this painting was created to alter our perception of beauty. Beautiful no longer means what is idealized in pop culture, media, and even historical culture and ideology. Beautiful is reinvented in this piece.

I chose this work because I found it to be quite beautiful. Even though it is most everyone’s perception of a deformity, it has some real beauty in it. The attention is taken away from the subject’s face and is drawn towards the “deformities” of the body, which is painted softly and remarkably. And even though the attention is drawn towards the missing limbs, Davison still makes the work absolutely stunning without having to spruce up the other parts of her body. The subject’s arms are painted in shadows in the background. I thought this was a great spin off of a classic nude painting. 

(Kyle Tossetti)

Marge Simpson

Artist: David Barton
Title: Marge Simpson
Media: Drawing/Photoshop
Dimension: -
Date: December 2009

David Barton a.k.a Limpfish, from the United Kingdom, is an artist on Deviantart.com.

Artist statement: "All this rubbish has been created by yours truly (that’s me!)."

http://www.limpfish.com

The piece was made by an old version of Photoshop, a less old coral painter, and a crayon. David Barton illustrates fantastic series of portraits that paint Simpsons characters into some of arts most famous portraits. He has re-imagined Marge Simpson as the Girl with a Pearl Earring by Vermeer. Instead of wearing a pearl earring, Marge wears her infamous necklace, just stringed with pearls.

This Portrait is very fun and imaginative! I think remastering very classic paintings with unusual & humorous icons like this one gives a fresher perspective on the piece. This painting connects to our portrait theme and everyone else can connect with the painting because they can relate to might have seen the iconic Simpsons show. So this old painting is turned to new!

                                                                                                                                                    (Berlin A.)

Self Portrait as Mona Lisa

                                                                     
Artist: Self Portrait by Salvador Dali
            Photographic Elements by Philippe Halsman
Media: painting/photography
Dimension: 77 cm × 53 cm (30 in × 21 in)
Title: Self Portrait as Mona Lisa
Date: 1954

Salvador Dali, from Spain, was a skilled technical drawer best known for the striking & bizarre images in his surrealist work. his painterly skills are often attributed to the influence of Renaissance masters. Dali's expansive artistic repertoire included film, sculpture  & photography, in a collaboration with a range of artists in a variety of media. His eccentric manner & attention grabbing public actions sometimes drew more attention than his artwork.

Salvador Dali's statement - " I do not paint a portrait to look like the subject, rather does the person grow to look like his portrait."

In 1941 Halsman met the surrealist artist Salvador Dali and they began to collaborate in the late 1940's.Obviously referring to Duchamp's Mona Lisa parody, Dali's replaces Duchamp's understated additions with the artist's elaborate signature mustache; Mona/Dali looks out at the observer with decidedly non-Leonardesque eyes while holding an avalanche of gold currency in hands that must be the photographic simulacrum of Dali's own. To this observer it seems as if the purpose of this picture is to paint Dali as both creator and self-created; playing on the notion that the artist is his own subject. Halsman & Dali also released a compendium of their collaboration in 1954 book, Dali's Mustache, which features 36 views of the artists mustache. 

I think this portrait is very attention grabbing & humorous. i believe that this picture was not to be taken very serious, and somewhat poking fun at the original "Mona Lisa" painting. The way this self portrait was painted makes me enjoy the original piece just a little more. :)  This uniqueness & sort of iconic piece connects to the theme overall.


                                                                                                                                                  (Berlin A.)                          

  Afghan Girl                                   Rene Nicholas

Artist - Steve McCurry
Title - Afghan Girl
Media - photography
Dimension -120 x 90 cm
Date - December 1984


Steve McCurry was born on February 24, 1950 in Philadelphia attended Penn State University. He originally planned to study cinematography and film-making, but ended up getting a degree in theater arts. He became interested in photography when he started taking pictures for the Penn State newspaper The Daily Collegian.
After working at Today's Post for two years, he left for India to freelance. His career was launched when, disguised in native clothes, he crossed the Pakistan border into rebel controlled areas of Afghanistan just before the Soviet Invasion. When he emerged, he had rolls of film sewn into his clothes. Those images, which were published around the world, were among the first to show the conflict. His work has been featured worldwide in magazines and he is a frequent contributor to National Geographic. Steve McCurry focuses on the human consequences of war, not only showing what war does to the landscape, but rather, on the human face.

An artist statement given by Steve McCurry was that " If you wait people will forget your camera and the soul will drift into the view."

Steve McCurry took his most recognized portrait, "Afghan Girl", in a refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan. The image itself was named as "the most recognized photograph" in the history of the National Geographic magazine and her face became famous as the cover photograph on the June 1985 magazine. The photo has also been widely used on brochures, posters, and calendars. The camera used was a with a Nikon FM2 camera and Nikkor 105mm F2.5 lens.

The reason why I chose this amazing piece was because I recognized it in a National Geographic magazine when I was a kid, and the girl's eyes really popped out to me and made me want to read the magazine. The way this photo connects to the theme is that its a portrait and the theme is portraits.

Conclusion

(Stefan Feather) The overall process of putting together a themed exhibition was difficult at first, but once the theme was decided, the five of us contributed different works of art, approaching this exhibition with different perspectives, tastes, and preferences; but all came together with a central theme. This was both fun and exciting. The making of this exhibition, though challenging to find which portraits that would accurately portray our theme, came naturally. Being able to create the feeling of both a distinct beginning, and distinct end to an exhibition is truly an art in itself. Each of our five minds came together to create one big work of art.
(Kyle Tossetti) In conclusion to our show, what we have learned is that putting together an art exhibit can be a lot of work, but at the same time a lot of fun. When a topic is chosen, it is exciting to research and discover what works can fit into that topic and how. Any work of art can fit into any topic, with an explanation and a little research. Being able to incorporate what we thought would fit nicely into our portrait themed show, and how each person came up with interesting ideas and works, was exciting and entertaining. Thank you.
(LeRoy Reynolds) As I worked through this project, I noticed that I have an interest in art and that I now understand how to see the difference between many styles. Finding artists for this project was very fun and it took time to find art pieces that everyone would find interesting. The best part for me was the fact that I discovered portraits that are artistic and have people think and ponder the piece. Everything came naturally to me, the only challenge was making sure everything fit in the right place and making sure the information gathered was accurate. I believe our group put together a great gallery and I  found being a curator was very interesting. The theme was the catalyst to finding such great pieces, because finding portraits can be both simple and difficult. It had a focus on how an artist can make an image of a person and add their creative touch to the person's picture. This allowed for a lot of creative art pieces to be shown due to the theme. Thank you, and I hope you enjoyed our gallery presentation.