This is a picture of one of Alexa Meade’s Living portraits. It was painted on a young man, most likely in his twenties. He’s sitting in front of a beach umbrella, wearing wayfarer style sunglasses, a tank top and shorts. The image is bright and colorful, reminiscent of a sunny day at the beach.
There is much in this image that is competing for attention. There are several lines across the picture plane, going in different directions. In the figure, the lines are predominantly horizontal, helping the seated figure to look more still and casual. The lines in the umbrella radiate out from the center, while the poles bring the eye back in. The result is a kind of circular motion, that adds energy. Since there is so much going on with the lines and colors, this image could have easy turned into a complete mess. However, the concentration of darks near the figure’s head add a central focus. Though this helps to balance it out some, it’s still hard to focus on any one point at a time and hard to even look at after awhile. The model in this photo is looking off to the side, with an air of aloofness. The sunglasses create distance between him and the viewer, making this less like a portrait and more like a fashion ad. The high gloss appearance created through Meade’s use of exaggerated highlights also creates a link with fashion photography. Though this use of highlights could have been to create the effect of skin covered in sunscreen. The overall painting style is sloppy, almost unfinished looking, like the artist was just trying to quickly lay down color and value. If this were an actual painting, it would look unprofessional. However, since this is done on a person, Meade most likely had an intention to exaggerate the style to contrast with an unpainted person.
I think the reason why this image appealed to me is because it’s somewhere in between portrait painting and fashion photography. If I didn’t already see this in the context of Alexa Meade’s other work, I would think it was an artsy RayBan ad. It explores the line between portraits and modeling. This is interesting because both are photographs of people and there is no clear division between the two, though it is usually easy to tell the difference. I think both are representations of who a person could be perceived as, and not who they actual are.
I don’t think Meade is really breaking any new ground with her art as a whole. I think what she is doing is exactly like the cheesy living statues that they have in Vegas and other tourist destinations. It’s momentary entertainment and I don’t think she will be a successful artist for long if this is all that she can do. I wouldn’t be surprised if some other artist had already done this same thing back in the 60s or 70s. Artists have been painting and dressing up people for performance art for a long time, and doing it in more interesting ways than Meade. For example, someone recently created a living version of a Lichtenstein girl and Keith Herring often painted images on models. I believe the only reason she has gotten any attention for her work at all is because of the internet. If her fame were to be dependent on the art world alone, I don’t believe she would be as well known. In the context of the art world, she isn’t doing anything new or interesting. However, she seems to be well received by people on the internet. Most people on Flickr don’t know anything about art and aren’t familiar with many artists or what their art means. Flickr fame is fleeting though, as is any fame on the internet, so I think Meade needs to do something more interesting with her work that relates to the art world if she wants to continue her career. Her painting style needs to be able to stand on its own, even though she is working on people, and right now it just looks clumsy and adolescent.
The Official Blog of WRTG 3007, Summer 2012 