Ileana Hernandez

The Sum of its Parts - 102" x 126" - Individual images are 14" x 16" - Oil on Canvas - NFS

Artist's Statement

The role of an artist is to reveal the world and its perplexities in a different light through their distinctive perceptions. Changing because of the use of photography in today’s visual culture, human perceptions and interactions are no longer solely reserved to the mind. This body of work attempts to comment on contemporary society’s dependence on the lens and how it alters how we interact with our surroundings and one another.

As a painter, I employ the lens of a digital camera as a third filter to manipulate the form of my subject through cropping and distorting which leads to unexpected changes of perspective, color, and composition of the figure within the picture plane. By using a lens as a third kind of assessment of the body, I am able to create a loss of the usually authentic connection of artist and model, thereby portraying a more skeptical view of form and figure to the viewer.  By grouping these cropped and close-up parts of the body in a grid pattern, I am creating an organized and systematic multitude of combined sections of bodies which pushes the viewer to question what forms they are encountering in the pieces.

By taking the time to paint the distorted images of the figure, I attempt to coerce the viewer to notice details within my brushstrokes. The process of painting ultimately opposes the fast-paced behavior that the digital age takes to consume media and photos. This certain demeanor for immediacy is affected by the lens which produces a confused and manipulated connection between the human and what they are seeing. By being surrounded by this fractured connection with the human figure through the lens’s influence, I believe, as an artist and participant of the digital age, that this exploration through painting is crucial.

Artist's Instagram: @ileanashernandez

Artists Website:ileanashernandez.com

If you wish to purchase any of these pieces, please contact the gallery director, Jacqueline Nathan (jnathan@bgsu.edu.)