InfiniteD.

 

 Wait...

...whaaaat?!

Yeah that's right. Those are all three dimensional people painted to look two dimensional. Her name is Alexa Meade, and she's a genius. 

"Alexa Meade has innovated a Trompe-L’Oeil painting technique that can perceptually compress three-dimensional space into a two-dimensional plane. Her work is a fusion of installation, painting, performance, photography, and video art.

Rather than painting a representational picture on a flat canvas, Meade paints her representational image directly on top of her three-dimensional subjects. The subject and its representation become one and the same. Essentially, her art imitates life on top of life." That's an excerpt taken from her page. She's only 23, folks! I am beyond impressed, and not gonna lie, jealous! Who wouldn't be, she's young and highly successful. I saw a small piece about her in Elle? InStyle? Once again I don't remember. I wanna say InStyle. 

 This is one of those times where I am simultaneously appreciating someone else's work and critiquing my own. Am I way behind? Is there even any use comparing? For any readers who aren't artistically inclined, or who don't consider themselves an "artist", do not feel like you're missing out. There's nothing like being an artist of any kind (fine artist, actor, musician, etc) to breed the most evil and potent of insecurities. In my opinion, this is due to the fact that the artist is both the craft and the craftsman. There is no separating an artist from what they create. If someone dislikes your work, they dislikes you. At least that's how it can feel, and it takes a very grounded, self-assured person to rise above that. I like to think of myself as grounded, but we all have our moments. One of the hardest parts with comparing is that there's no set standard. Yes there are those who have been trained and those who haven't, and yes that can set some artists apart from others. But training can only take you so far. You can be trained but have no organic creativity of your own, which renders your training effectively useless. And being self-taught and instinctual with your art is more natural to the process than being methodical and calculated. All of these variables make it very difficult to know where you stand. I'm sure some people are just fine with that. Those are the freaks who manage to navigate the art world with no doubts whatsoever. But for the rest of us who constantly feel the need to analyze, compare, categorize, and rank, it's not so easy. This leads to a crippling need for feedback and compliments and reassurance. God help me if I ever become that deeply entrenched in it all. It's a slippery slope, I'll say that much. Sometimes I wish I could just look at the work of another artist and simply appreciate it (or not, if it's just straight weird) instead of automatically entering into panic mode. Of course, on top of being an analytical individual, I'm also someone who has felt the pressure of time for as long as I can remember. At the age of 7 I felt like I needed to get a move on already. Just imagine how much that's increased over the past 13 years. I'm only 19 going on 20 and I feel like I'm running out of time to figure out every detail of my life. I hope you all can gaze at the amazingness that is Alexa Meade and simply marvel at her talent. If you can, do let me know how that feels!

You can read more about her and see more of her work on her page. Check out her flickr for her most recent work!

-LG