Introspection

by Vanessa Vargas

33''x38'' • Paper, Acrylic $$40

I am a Chicago based artist. Very often my work deals with bringing together opposite ideas. In this series, I wanted to capture emotion, stillness, and movement. Specifically, in this piece, Introspection, I wanted to convey sadness and a quite struggle within one’s self—two things that we can all relate to at one point in our lives. In this piece, though two figures appear, they are the same woman. She is just portrayed in two positions which are, essentially, similar. Her downward cast face hidden behind a mane of hair is her deliberate attempt at not being seen or recognized by the viewer. She sits in an almost fetal like position. Her arms wrap her body. Perhaps the image of her to the right, as the leg is not as deliberately pulled in hints at change? Regardless, her positions underscore the desire of wanting to be isolated. The purposeful blue paint on the figures was painted on very forcefully suggesting that there is great passion beneath the surface. The brush strokes and dripping of white paint symbolize that there is movement around her… though she seems unwavering in her desire to engage.