Pieces of Paint:
a series of self portraiture
by Hannah Marie Field
This exhibition is an exploration of and inquiry into my changing physical and psychological selves through self-portraiture. Each person is brought into the world with the burden of “discovering” his or her “True” self. This existential task is made all the more complex for the fact that we, as individuals, are constantly evolving from moment to moment into different states of being. The intent of this project is to begin unraveling what this means for myself both as an artist and an ordinary human being by capturing moments of my various states of being over the course of the year 2010.
I chose to use oil painting as my primary medium because of its unique ability to capture flesh in a raw and physical way. Oil painting is also incredibly versatile and has allowed me to experiment with different styles over time. The painting style implemented in my senior project plays with the way blocks of painted color interact with one another to create an image. I am inspired by German expressionism, fauvism, impressionism, and contemporary figure painters like Lucian Freud, John Dubrow, and Alice Neel, among many others. I would say that my paintings are a hybrid of these different movements and artists’ styles reconstructed by the work of my own hand.
In this collection of work, I use broad, meaty, brush strokes and pieces of paint to convey not only my skin, but also to capture the intense psychological meanings that these images hold for me. Each self-portrait expresses a different psychological state and thus a different me. Most of my paintings in this series do not show my face (or the entirety of it). Without knowing me, or being told that the paintings of my feet, stomach, back, etc. are representations of myself, a viewer may assume that the subjects of my images are anonymous. My intention here is not to draw attention to myself in order to allow the viewer to enter into my paintings without being blocked by a face that is not their own. This passageway into the body pulls the viewer into the painting and thereby into my mind. Different brushstrokes, poses, and colors hold strong emotional connotations, which I hope will guide each member of my audience to experience a personal reaction to my work, rather than assuming universal conventions.
In addition to my secular artistic inspirations, I have always been fascinated by the power of religious imagery and its ability to stir emotion and even convert its viewers. I want my paintings to have a similar power and I believe that I have achieved this to a certain degree. While I do not expect viewers to convert to Hannah Marie Fieldism after seeing my exhibition, I do expect them to be emotionally impacted. All of the paintings in this series concern isolation and estrangement. In college it became very clear to me that I am not a social extrovert. However, I do not take my self-alienation as a negative characteristic. In fact, I am grateful for my social exile. It has allowed me to delve into myself and into my paintings in a deeply personal way. After completing this series of self-portraits, I feel that I have learned a lot about myself as a human being and as an artist. I have succeeded in reaching my goal of capturing my ever-changing selves through the painting process. Looking at my year’s work as a collective whole, I am reminded of who I was, who I am, and the artist that I am becoming.