After Death
2021
“Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them” George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) Adam Bede 1859
While searching through boxes of photographs of my family, many thoughts went through my mind. Especially a thought that was already a regular occurrence, memories. No matter what we believe will happen to us after we die we all want to remember ourselves, the only true thing we know, from birth until death. But what if we cannot remember ourselves. Then our memory or our life is placed into the hands of the living, those who we shared our cherished memories with. Those who knew us best, or even those we shared small, quick conversations with and never saw again. We leave impressions on each other, though they really only last a generation or two. After those who you've physically touched, we are known through stories that may or may not be remembered and passed down, slowly fading away. After Death contemplates the idea of this fading of memories.
This is a series of 23 portraits. Each painting is 7 by 5 inches, oil paint on wood panel. I utilized the palette knife technique in order to leave out details and create a distortion effect in the portraits. The portraits distortion varies depending on my closeness to them, or my memories of them. Each portrait has a halo gilded with gold leaf, some solid, some ringed. The sold halos represent family who have passed, and the ringed halos represent those who were currently still living. The halo creates this perception of importance, which reflects the importance we feel for our own lives and memories. The eyes of the people in the portraits are wiped away since the eyes are what creates connection and I wanted to convey that idea of impersonality. All of these decisions come together to create the sense of a lack of personal connection and the fading away of people as they become lost in time. “The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living” Marcus Tullius Cicero ~35 BCE
While searching through boxes of photographs of my family, many thoughts went through my mind. Especially a thought that was already a regular occurrence, memories. No matter what we believe will happen to us after we die we all want to remember ourselves, the only true thing we know, from birth until death. But what if we cannot remember ourselves. Then our memory or our life is placed into the hands of the living, those who we shared our cherished memories with. Those who knew us best, or even those we shared small, quick conversations with and never saw again. We leave impressions on each other, though they really only last a generation or two. After those who you've physically touched, we are known through stories that may or may not be remembered and passed down, slowly fading away. After Death contemplates the idea of this fading of memories.
This is a series of 23 portraits. Each painting is 7 by 5 inches, oil paint on wood panel. I utilized the palette knife technique in order to leave out details and create a distortion effect in the portraits. The portraits distortion varies depending on my closeness to them, or my memories of them. Each portrait has a halo gilded with gold leaf, some solid, some ringed. The sold halos represent family who have passed, and the ringed halos represent those who were currently still living. The halo creates this perception of importance, which reflects the importance we feel for our own lives and memories. The eyes of the people in the portraits are wiped away since the eyes are what creates connection and I wanted to convey that idea of impersonality. All of these decisions come together to create the sense of a lack of personal connection and the fading away of people as they become lost in time. “The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living” Marcus Tullius Cicero ~35 BCE
Betty
oil on wood, 6 x 7.5in $120 Tom
oil on wood, 6 x 7.5in $120 Kayla
oil on wood, 6 x 7.5in $120 Adam
oil on wood, 6 x 7.5in $120 Phyllis
oil on wood, 6 x 7.5in $120 Elizabeth
oil on wood, 6 x 7.5in $120 Ken
oil on wood, 6 x 7.5in $120 Unknown 1
oil on wood, 6 x 7.5in $120 |
Unknown 3
oil on wood, 6 x 7.5in $120 Steve
oil on wood, 6 x 7.5in $120 George
oil on wood, 6 x 7.5in $120 Unknown 2
oil on wood, 6 x 7.5in $120 Mary
oil on wood, 6 x 7.5in $120 Stephen
oil on wood, 6 x 7.5in $120 Kenneth
oil on wood, 6 x 7.5in $120 Brenda
oil on wood, 6 x 7.5in $120 |
Judge
oil on wood, 6 x 7.5in $120 Debby
oil on wood, 6 x 7.5in $120 Ellen
oil on wood, 6 x 7.5in $120 David
oil on wood, 6 x 7.5in $120 Gregory
oil on wood, 6 x 7.5in $120 Robert
oil on wood, 6 x 7.5in $120 Harold
oil on wood, 6 x 7.5in $120 |