Mirrored - Cleo Flavin

Cleo Flavin -

In my exhibition, I am approaching different forms and figures being my main focus. Most of my paintings are portraits of some aspect of the human face while exploring different materials and techniques. Most of my pieces don’t have a deep meaning behind them and are just me exploring different works of art as well as the forms and figures of the human face. This process began when I was exploring different mediums and realized how much I expect out of myself when it comes to drawing the human figure, because of this I decided to completely tackle the human face and attempt to mitigate my harsh feelings about my works and interpretations of the human face.

I chose different media: gouache, charcoal, and oil. I think that the different media helped solidify the idea that not every piece has to have a deep meaning behind it, instead, they can just be a selection of works that the artist loves and finds appealing. I chose different mediums so that I can keep exploring and figure out what I like the most. There are so many different techniques and ideas that people can learn and grasp, I am trying to alleviate the intimidation and the need for importance around art pieces and decisions the artist made. Having the artistic freedom to approach art in whatever way I see fit without restrictions of what meanings need to be behind my work has helped me expand my own knowledge as well as helped me be more comfortable with creating art the way I want and not the way society wants.

One I picked is Jerry, which I created initially for my father. It was my first exploration with oil as well as the biggest piece I had ever created. This piece shows how vast the style of art is in my show, which helps emphasize the lack of meaning behind my pieces. Utilizing different techniques and materials can help show how your pieces don’t need to look the same or have the same ideas behind them to be in an art show together. Another piece I picked is, LoveStruck, which is a self-portrait inspired by Trenton Doyle Hancock when I saw a piece of his in class. The difference between these two pieces just shows how inclusive my show is. I intend on putting my pieces all together where you can see the different explorations, no other focus, no other distractions. I want my art to be the reason that the people are looking, and not just because the background behind my paintings is cool. It is important to understand that you are able to interpret art in however way you see fit, many people assume that with art there has to be a deep meaning behind a piece. I intend to show that all you need to do is create and you will be creating art with meaning. With this, I hope that people can give my works their interpretation and take their understandings from my pieces.

SocialSpiral, gouache on Illustration board, 74.25 cm x 30 cm

This piece is inspired by Trenton Doyle Hancock and is coupled with another one of my works titled Love Blind. This piece is a self-portrait of all of my close friends around me. The colors represent the colors that I associate with the people in my life as well as the different types of designs that I have for each person. I decided to couple these two pieces together because of the difference between a more personal look into who I am, next to who I am with the people around me.

LoveStruck, gouache on illustration board, 31.5 cm x 25.5 cm

This is a piece that was originally an artist study in which I decided to create pieces inspired by him. The artist is someone named Trenton Doyle Hancock. I had seen one of his works in our class and decided that it was something that I wanted to make because I thought it looked really interesting. This piece is a self-portrait in his style, which is also coupled with another piece inspired by him called SocialSpiral.

Tears, oil on canvas, 60.5 cm x 30.5 cm

I wanted to explore more realistic approaches to the style of the face than I have previously. It is another piece that is made in oil, where I did the first layer of color to help the undertones pop out. I am looking at the way we associate color with emotion and how all three girls are the same but people might associate their tears with different emotions because of the subtle undertones of green, blue, or red that are apparent.

Untitled, oil on canvas, 39 cm x 39 cm

As I was trying to come up with a name for this piece, I couldn’t. I was having trouble figuring something out because I painted this piece because I thought the idea would be cool and not because I had this deep meaning behind it. This piece to me really shows the ability to lack meaning behind your pieces and they still turn out good. This piece was a struggle for me because of the way that I approached the oils, but I think that the concept behind it is what brings it all together.

Reflection, gouache on illustration board, a set of 25 cm x 25.5 cm

This piece was one that was more challenging for me, I spent a lot of time on the details and the background because of how difficult gouache is to use sometimes. I wasn’t going to do a background but during the process, I actually ended up designing a background so the pieces flowed better together. I think the use of opposite colors as well as the way I have one “reflecting” onto the other really ties them together. It was also the first real piece in gouache that I had done.

Jerry, oils on canvas, 60.5 cm x 91 cm

Jerry is a piece that I created for my dad for Christmas of his favorite musician Jerry Garcia. I had started this piece during the summer but after a certain point, I had lost motivation. This was the biggest and most realistic painting I had done at the time while it was the first time I used oil, where I just based the painting on an image. I enjoyed learning how to use oil and I intend to keep using oil even though the learning curve is steep.

Polaroid, gouache on drawing paper, 22.25 cm x 29.75 cm

One of the pieces that I had done last year was Polaroid. It is titled that because of the absence of paint on the sides and on the bottom. I thought this piece was really cool because of the use of gold paint that I had specifically sought out for this piece. I also love the straight lines, which this piece was one of the only ones I used tape for to help me keep the straight clean lines that I was trying to achieve.