Artist Statement

I have created this piece of art with the thought that things that are known to be odd and different, including people, can also be beautiful. Using graphite pencil, charcoal pencil and pastels, I drew many eyes with various mutations. Deformities are normally frowned upon, which is really unfortunate. The uniqueness of the deformity in each eye is what makes it so beautiful. The flowers, an obvious symbol of beauty, corresponding the deformations with flowers makes the eyes seem less somber and more bright. The flowers also bring asymmetry to the piece. I decided to make a warm toned flesh colored background to make a warmer, happier mood to the piece. I wanted the viewer to see the mutations in the eyes and use the background to bring a good mood to the mutations instead of rejecting the mutations as beautiful. I did a little research on the different mutations that could occur in the human eye, and in my opinion they are very beautiful as opposed to society may see as grotesque. Mutation is often used negatively, but in this piece of art, I wanted to prove that it could also be beautiful.

To create this I used graphite pencil to plot where i wanted to position each eye. Then, i mainly used colorful pastels to color in the eyes and the skin around it. For the eye lashes i used a charcoal pencil. I used the pastels on paper to get a very soft, blended look.Though I’ve never previously used pastels, I loved the softness of them and think they helped me to achieve the look I wanted. I took pictures with my phone of some friends’ eyes and referenced them while drawing and coloring. I also looked at some pictures I took of flowers in my yard and used them for reference. I put one flower in the bottom right corner and one bigger one on the top left corner for balance and to help the eye move around the piece.

Artist who inspired me: I was inspired by an artist named Julie Heffernan. She creates art that is torn between being grotesque or beautiful. Personally, I agree with both. She has done one oil painting on canvas specifically that has inspired me, it’s called, Self-Portrait as Booty. It’s a self portrait in a beautiful dress made of flowers and animal carcuses.While the dress is made of disgusting things, she and the flowers are beautiful; and it’s all very well painted, making it quite the beautiful piece, in my opinion.

Cortney Markley