I recently finished a series of crayon and oil pieces which was shown in my featured artist show presented by Cannibal Flower. This is one of the first pieces in the series I completed, entitled "Searching for the Lost". It ended up being the most common favorite of everyone. As the artist too, I must admit that this was the piece closest to my heart. This piece I came up with and started in a studio other than my own, and did the first layer while listening to The Smiths. I'm ashamed to admit that, other than one song, this was my very first time EVER hearing The Smiths ( How I avoided them, I have no idea?! I was clearly missing out...). This piece took me a while to complete and the process interested me, as I noticed how every time I worked on it, it seemed the expression changed delicately with my own changing emotions. Hmm...an odd version of The Picture of Dorian Gray?
While the girl in the painting doesn't entirely look like me, I will say I consider this painting a self-portrait. I am pretty stingy on which paintings get the title of self-portrait, because at first glance many people assume all my paintings are self-portraits which is a major frustration as it is usually not my intention. However, this piece is a self-portrait in it's purest form. More than anything, these in-process photos are a documentation of that.
Along with the expression changing, so did the title. At first I named it "Lost in a Forest" ( partially inspired by the song by the Cure "A Forest") Then when I looked at it later, I suddenly realized that the character in my painting actually wasn't lost, and instead seemed to be searching for somethign else or someone else that was lost in the city-forest. Thus, "Searching for the Lost".
In-process photos in chronological order:
