Dakota Russell

Renee

This piece, Renee, is a simplistic characterization of my own cat. It is a portrait of her within a forced perspective composition where the subject confronts the viewer. It is entirely painted out of gouache atop a 6x6 inch panel. During its creation, I felt lost as an artist and was struggling to understand the definition of my own art. This piece was the first painting I had created in years that was for my own enjoyment other than for my work and schooling. The use of color and further distortion of the room surrounding the subject was a key part of my experimental thought process.

Using my own cat as my subject evolved into a symbol representing a new spark and process of creating art. This simple piece not only helped me out of years of struggle within my practice, but opened up an entirely new world of art to me. With this, I can use my personal experience of making art exciting again by inspiring others to create as much as possible and reminding those how they define their creative process. 

This piece was featured in Volume 2, Issue 2. Click here to explore other pieces from this issue.