Make your paintings pop! As an artist, that’s a common mantra. You want your work to come alive—you want it to catch and enrapture your viewer’s eye. If the piece isn’t interesting, no one’s going to look at it for long. Every breed of artist knows this; if your artistic creation doesn’t come alive in your audience’s eyes, you’re not doing a very good job.
What’s all this about making your paintings “pop”, though? Well, you don’t want whatever you’ve created to be flat. We all know that a drawing, a painting, or a photo, are all—by nature—flat. Does that mean they have to look flat? Perhaps you should ask this young woman.
Alexa Meade pays no mind to that creed; she’s created an ironic twist all her own. Something tells me that as a kid, little Alexa didn’t like to play by the rules. I can’t say for sure or not if she ever got in trouble for painting the dog, but her work illustrates my point. Using acrylic paints and live models and settings, Meade literally sets her model down and starts painting. Painting what you ask?
Painting her model!
The process is simple enough, but the illusion is absolutely mind-blowing. What begins its artistic voyage as what would be a simple photograph ends looking like something that came straight off of the canvas. The result is essentially a 3D-2D hybrid, and it’s making waves in the art world. I came across another artist who’s recently been doing the same thing, but his work just couldn’t stand up to the stunning quality of Meade’s portraits. This young woman has talent and vision far beyond her years.
Something important when it comes to any artistic product is not to let your subject matter carry you. Beyond that, it’s a difficulty making sure your finished work doesn’t end up coming across as gimmicky when you’re executing something as wildly original as this. If a certain theme is popular today, artists are going to use it. Everyone wants attention or praise—that’s natural! Except when the quality behind the work is sub-par, it’s common for the popularity of the subject to carry the actual skill behind it. What about gimmicks? People are always going to be drawn to new, exciting things. What’s more important though? Originality or skill?
That’s for you to decide, but Alexa Meade most definitely isn’t riding on the coattails of subject or gimmickry. Not only is her work refreshing, inventive, and eye-catching, her skill is apparent. Meade strikes both sides of the coin in her art, showing an inspiring union of uncompromised skill and thought-evoking concept. And remember: not only is this artist working to create a captivating piece of art, but she’s also creating a visual illusion—talk about a juggling act!
What does the artist have to say about her work? Here’s what Meade has to say about “pop-out painting”:
“In my current work, I construct and then photograph ephemeral installation sets that feature an assemblage of found objects and live models, which I have covered in layers of acrylic paint. I paint the surfaces of the human subjects, the material objects, and the architecture of the installations so as to collapse the subject, foreground, and background into one continuous plane. I present my ephemeral portrait/performances as both live, interactive installations as well as permanent photographic indices of these experiences.” –Alexa Meade (http://alexameade.com/about.html)
Meade brings up an interesting point here. She’s taking an image that has multiple levels of focus, and turning them into—as she said—one continuous plane of imagery. The process is fundamentally deconstructing a three dimensional image using only paint! Coming at the portraits without knowledge of the illusion, you’ve got stunning, contemporary paintings. Once you understand the truth behind the illusion, though, Meade’s work ascends to another level.
It’s fascinating browsing her gallery, especially when you come across images in which she photographs herself within her painted environment. In addition to the eye-tricking “canvas” pieces, Meade also showcases a very innovative take on reality and fantasy as she fuses her paintings with real life scenes. As if her characters have simply stepped off the canvas and into the realm of flesh and blood, her willing subjects are often shown in her photography amidst unpainted scenes. The artist even has had her work featured as liveexhibits, which are exactly as they sound. Who needs wax figures?
Another point to highlight is her dazzling photography. Not only does Meade know how to portray her models effectively to immerse them into the acrylics, she also makes inspiring effort to present them in her wonderful fusion pieces. Her camera work is a force all its own, and combined with her other talents, it’s safe to say that she’s a double-threat and more.
Viewing Alexa Meade’s creations makes you stop and think. It twists your perceptions and lights a fire in your mind. Are you staring into a piece of hers, looking, searching for some small detail to break her fabricated plane of paint into a three dimensional image?
You aren’t alone, and I think that’s why her work looks to stand the test of time.