Zora Molina -

Over the course of my art journey, I have found that I primarily enjoy working with portraits. While I started this pattern unintentionally, as my body of work began to grow, I found that I continuously focused on negative emotions. This ultimately led to the development of the theme “the absence of a smile”. Under this theme, I put emphasis on expression and well as surrealism with the aim to draw out discomfort and somber inquisitiveness from the audience. By focusing on portraits and expressionism, I’m able to ensure that specific emotions are at the forefront of my works.

Works such as “Drowning”, “Watching TV”, and “In the end, you’ll just be another angry black woman” especially highlight the influence expressionism has over my art. Each of these works are portraits that center around presenting a certain emotion to the audience. As a result of this, these emotions become a symbolic commentary on the issues I tend to explore while creating art. For instance, I like to explore the struggles people of color face, which is softly present through the expressions in “Watching TV” and “In the end, you’ll just be another angry black woman”. As for surrealism, this was another art movement that had a key influence on my art. Oftentimes, it transformed my works from being simple portraits into being symbolic of issues or dark situations. This is directly seen in “Drowning”, in which the subject’s hair is a large juxtaposition to the subject, and the subject herself is meant to symbolize how the ocean is suffering due to pollution. Another example of this is “Through Rose-Colored Glasses”, in which the subject strays away from being the average human through her pink eyes, flower freckles, and lack of a mouth. The constant motif of flowers also serves as symbols of beauty, whereas the hidden skulls symbolize the darker sides of the subject. My interest in darker imagery in art is more so present in my works that are influenced by artists such as Keith Thompson. Because he is a horror artist who aligns with this style of illogical and fantastical elements, his influence encouraged my work to have an element of horror art and fantasy-like imagery. This is seen in “Sunday Breakfast” in which a gory scene is presented through the aforementioned elements. This in turn ties back to that theme of the POC struggle, though in a much more stark and uncomfortable way than the first two mentioned. Keith Thompson’s influence is again seen in “Kidnapped” in which a frightened tone is created through fantasy-like imagery of shadow creatures surrounding a crying child. As for tools I use, I mainly work with Charcoal and Acrylic paint. In doing so, I aim to have contrast, shadow, and chaos as patterns throughout my entire body of work. “In the end, you’ll just be another angry black woman” and “Sunday Breakfast” both emphasize contrast and shadow and therefore are made with charcoal. Works that have softer contrast, such as “Watching Tv”, are made with acrylic. Furthermore, I find chaos is presented well through color, and therefore “Drowning” and “Through Rose-Colored Glasses” are made with acrylic.

In the end, this body of work is meant to put the audience face to face with issues within our world, and those who suffer due to these issues. Portraits including “Watching TV” and “Sunday Breakfast” are at the top of the space in order to be more distant from the audience’s eyes. This is to erase that sense of a personal setting and even allows the subject of “Watching Tv” to be the one watching the audience as subjects. However, the lower four portraits are meant to be more eye level, so that there is much more direct eye contact with the audience, which allows for a sense of a cry of help from the subjects. “Kidnapped” highlights this idea, especially because the subject is a vulnerable child, which is why it is the centerpiece. By adding those who are crying for help to a level that is direct with the audience’s eyes, I aim for a further reflection on the theme “the absence of a smile”.