Ketia Alphonse

Really See Me

Honorable Mention

I have always found myself drawn to the creative pursuits of the artistic world. Throughout my years I've grown to love and appreciate the elements that make art unique and engaging. For example, how the direction of a brushstroke, a value of shading or a certain color can communicate emotion, or drive viewers deeper into underlying concepts within a work. I appreciate how movements of the body or a facial expression can communicate emotions that words fail to do in comparison. I wish to make art based on the human face and form that depict larger narratives of the emotional discourse humans experience in their lives. I am interested in oils as well as digital mediums. Both make bold statements that I feel connect to the meaning of my work.

This piece, specifically, is a portrait, not as a means of exactness but identity. It’s about really looking at an individual for who they are and not who they appear to be. Knowing nothing about the subject, audiences can only go based on perception. We perceive people by their clothes, bodies, and posture. Though this piece is intentional in only showing the face of the subject, to see the person with no understanding of who they may be outside of those characteristics. My work primarily focuses on the human experience at large and the little happenings that occur in moments. Like the assumptions we make of the people we pass by. I think about these moments in my work because we each contribute to this, consciously or not. And small things like this are what connect us. I hope that through works like this, we can see others as we know are ourselves to be: regular people who face hindrances every day, but are present. Seeing people this way brings humility in ourselves and heightens our awareness of those around us.