When my friend described her newest art series to me (probably 18 months ago), I was intrigued, both of her wholly relatable wrestling with imposter syndrome but also the spark in my own mind of a project that would allow me to use works of art I admire and love as the springboards to something new, a chance to ‘play’.
It felt an opportunity to lean into a creative mindset that was outside of client work and to grow as an artist + human. As such, my intention for each piece I tackled, was to:
- try something new (be it camera settings, set design, compositing, etc),
- to do my best to honour the original art/artist,
- and to also honour the person who willingly (and vulnerably) agreed to participate in this project.
When I first deigned to ask Stacey if I could work in tandem with her it was entirely intended as a personal project… but which quickly became a SHOW😬 lol. I’m enormously grateful to Stace for this opportunity to grow, to learn, and to… lean into: the fear of failure + judgment, the joy of art, and the camaraderie inherent in creative pursuits with others.
I decided early on that I would keep all works for the show ‘quiet’…not even the subjects were privy to the creations (save my kids 😉 ). And so, today, I am excited to begin a short series wherein I describe some of the thought that went into each piece, I invite you to follow along over the coming weeks.
Because I love each of these pieces and people; I’ve decided to write about these works in the order they were originally created… in this way I hope to honour both the subjects and you - the reader - as I convey my thought process as I engaged with this project.
The Weight of the Universe / Maguire x Magritte
Inspired by René Magritte’s ‘Le Fils de L’Homme’, 1964
The first subject to sit for this project was our son, Maguire. He was home from school for the holidays and I hoped he would say ‘yes’ to helping me bring my own version of this famous painting to life, and to help me kick off this series with someone I love + trust, and vice versa. 🥹
I saw written that Magritte had said his piece was, in part, “an homage to humanity, to what is visible and not.” I feel as though this next generation is facing challenges none of us could have predicted (maybe each generation says this, but I think it’s especially true now between the swing to authoritarianism amongst the great powers and the rapid acceleration + use of AI.) I wanted to help convey both Magritte’s questioning of what we - as humans - see in each other (or can’t, or don’t) and what our young people must be feeling… among the myriad concerns: the value of a university education in a quickly changing economy; technical skills and what will soon be automated; opportunity - to gain secure employment; and an increasingly unstable world-scape where countries are doing the unthinkable to their own innocent citizens and to those of their neighbours’.
In setting up the shot I chose a more monochromatic look for the subject, with the idea of a quasi fisherman-at-sea motif, intended to capture the expansiveness in Magritte’s painting that showcased the ocean, while also - hopefully - conveying the vulnerability of a ‘man at sea’.
We shot in studio and I then layered other elements around him: a shot of a stone wall I’d taken in England, to mimic the ocean wall in the original painting; an iPhone shot of the astronomical clock that graces the lobby of the Royal York Hotel in Toronto, a nod to our son’s studies and also to the fact that we are all just tiny specs of dust in this massive universe; a moody sky, found in my archives from many years ago, akin to the original stormy sky Magritte depicted; and, lastly, a slightly askew green ruler - instead of the apple - that I hope speaks to two ideas: the very slight view of the subject’s one eye, as Magritte intended, pleading the viewer to be curious about ‘who’ is behind the ‘mask’, AND also to the weight our next generation (and maybe all of us) are feeling when we think of justice, opportunity, and fairness in the world today - that the scales are not balanced.
This gallery framed piece - matted white with black metal frame - is 24x32 and available here.
xo Lori