Blossoms in the Suburbs, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40 inches.
This painting explores the feeling of girlhood abruptly ended and the (often) traumatizing nature of this experience. I referenced google street images of my house from google earth, of which were taken at a time I still lived at the house (obvious through scribbly chalk drawings and my dads’ truck in the driveway). I found these images intriguing since they would have been taken when I was younger than 10 years old. The empty lot next to this house that my sisters and I played is now constituted by a large, industrial garage.
I also referenced photo album pictures for the silhouettes of my sister and I using a photograph taken of us playing on the beach. With a bit of manipulation to the forms it was easy to make them appear to be drawing with chalk instead. The silhouette of the girl with braids is intentionally open to interpretation regarding her gaze: is she looking down at the chalk drawings or is her head turned to look at the mushroom clouds behind?). Either way. these shadows are an imprint of the moment before the disaster fully takes hold, with the kids innocently drawing/interpreting the nuclear fallout behind their house as yellow flowers in the sky.
