This 30 x 22 centimetre oil on board painting called Oil Country by Julian Forrest, '05 MFA, is part of his current work that, he says, "explores themes of loss of control and violence - but often violence at a remove.
"Stylistically," he continues, "I cannibalize imagery that I feel is either symbolic or emblematic and recycle these parts in subsequent reworked narratives. My paintings owe to the source material - the found photos pulled from the Internet - however, the source material is often altered or juxtaposed with other images in order to speak to the idea of memory, context and storytelling. This body of work recounts a narrative of real violence re-imagined."
Forrest has also taken to painting portraits of portraits that examine the modern phenomenon of people taking photos of themselves and posting them to Internet sites. "Unlike a traditional studio portrait," he says, "the photographs on these sites are often taken at home, or at least in private, and are fairly spontaneous. These paintings are, in some manner, an expression of the 21st century portrait."
To see more of Forrest's work go to www.julianforrest.com.