I filter the image through myself, distancing and distorting the original to make it my own, to keep some part of my experience separate from my physical self alive. I call attention to the carefully inserted details and symbols littered throughout the paintings. By zooming in, cropping, and sapping the images of color, I reveal the human presence and the numerous indicators of death, cycles of life and the passage of time contained within the bountiful energy of the original composition.

I sew my fragmented pieces together, recalling the act of Frankenstein stitching flesh from separate bodies to make his monster. Similar to the way Van Huysum painted flowers in the same vase regardless of the impossibility of their coexistence in reality. An element of the grotesque residing within the beautiful, his imaginary bouquets are an exhumation and resurrection. His work exemplifies art’s resistance to the limits of reality and the confines of impermanence, reflecting my own desires to evade endings. I cling to the present through the act of making, an ultimately fruitless attempt to contain the ravages of time.

MAGGIE SHAFRAN

MAGGIE SHAFRAN