Olēka (2021)
Acrylic on Recycled Wood Panel
15"x 20 1/4"
Olēka is the awareness of how few days are memorable. This self-portrait is a representation of the 2020 experience now carried over to 2021. This new normal continues to keep us in an isolated and uneventful existence with major events engrained into collective memory in between.
With a kitsch and mass-produced aesthetic, this piece depicts my monotonous daily reality the way a copier machine replicates an image, losing its quality with each passing copy.
Contrasting classical portraiture’s unobstructed view of the subject's face, this self-portrait depicts a predominantly masked face, leaving only the eyes gazing up with a shimmering hope for a better future and hopeful return to a time before quarantine and PPE.
This time-lapse goes over the process for building my wood panel. The final product is made off a found piece of found plywood and a recycled old canvas painting. I took apart the canvas and cut the stretcher bars to size.
This is the image I worked off of, this was taken in my bathroom and used warm colors for an added sense of claustrophobia and unease.
This was the final image using photoshop to distort some areas, while keeping some more illustrative.
To transfer images, I print on the back of mailing labels. These labels come from my job and are generally disposed so I repurpose them. Using Matte Gel evenly spread, around the panel, spray the printed side with adhesive, lay the print down and use a hair dryer to completely dry the gel out. Once dried, the paper backing peels, leaving the pigment suspended in the panel. Once fully dry, I spray the panel with fixative, otherwise the pigment is liable to come off and mix into my paint, often times making it muddy and gritty.
I often transfer multiples of the same image using a thin layer of clear gesso in between.
This is the second layer, which I again spread clear gesso on for added texture and to aid the painting process.
Finally, I begin to layer my paint to add texture and dimension.
