Title
Creation Date
2016
Preview
Medium
oil on paper
Description
Dimensions: Composed of 3 paintings, 4 x 3 feet each
Rights
© Clara M. Thomas, 2016.
Exhibit Images
Series Title: Obsessive Perspectives
Keywords
abject, anxiety, male gaze, observation, fleshy
Artist Statement
Since I can remember I have been fascinated with the intricate details of the human body. At a young age we are taught that staring is impolite. People feel uncomfortable when they know they are the object of observation. My painting portrays myself as the object of fixation, and the object of understanding the unknown. As Art critic John Berger would say, “The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe.”
This series is about the perspectives in which we see things. From a far, I see my face as one object, but up close each detail becomes its own subject. Every stroke of the paint brush, and every color applied, becomes its own painting. The unknown becomes present, and what was once known has changed. I force my viewers to look at me in an unconventional way. My viewers are my mirror, and I invite them to watch me, to feel discomfort, to observe my actions, to see me in a different perspective, to question, and to answer those questions based on, “… what we know or what we believe.”