Portrait of the Artist

Shuffling around the social-net this weekend and not getting much painting done.  Discovered "Kik" (thanks Janelle) - another mobile communication tool.  Thought I would post this article "Portrait of the Artist" (that would be me) featured in July's "435 South" magazine.  Kudos to the writer Brandon Reynolds, who presents some incredibly perceptive observations about art and artists.  Here's a quote from the article where the writer is speaking with Erin Smyth, the model for the Strathmore Drawing Pad cover and many other pieces of mine...

"The face that launched a thousand Strathmore covers doesn’t feel the weight of being the cover girl for aspiring artists: “A lot of people probably assume that I’m not real.”  She says Rose gets asked often is she’s an actual person. Which presents a counterpoint to his goal of creating images of people who look “real.” Look at enough of his work and that balance becomes clear: His paintings are more vibrant, vivid, expressive than what the photograph will capture, but they also go beyond the standards of realism, of life. They present a person more lively than normal life, you might say, more emotional or expressive or beautiful than what we encounter in the day-to-day. This is why people gravitate to the images, drawn by a vision of exaggerated life, the suggestion of the sublime. It’s why people keep coming around to see naked old David. One might argue that, in the case of Rose’s paintings, it takes two people, two whole sets of emotions — painter and subject — to evoke such beyond normal results. Strictly speaking, the image belongs to neither of them. Which means it belongs to we who look upon it."

Portrait of the Artist - William Rose