"Blind," by Victoria Dalpe, delivers its audiences to dimly lit rooms charged with mystery and sexuality. Asking its viewers to become voyeurs while simultaneously masking the subject. "Blind" is paint on canvas. 34" x 27.5"/ Framed/ Ready to Hang, a beautiful and nuanced piece. 

Artist Statement: I love dichotomy: especially the beautiful and the grotesque, the erotic and the repulsive. The strange and the familiar. It is a human body and yet it isn’t. It is a skull, but it also may be more, or of what creature is unknown. The figure is beautiful and terrible at the same time.

For as long as I can remember I have been interested and attracted to that contrast and it is a problem I am perpetually working out in my painting, illustration, and in my fiction.

My primary interest has always been the female figure in art: from classical paintings to editorials in fashion magazines. I like the complexity of the human form, and the loaded visual imagery of the feminine form: objectified, sexualized, distorted or made ugly. Understanding and thinking about the figure forces me to be present within my own body, and I hope to the viewer of my work- thinking about their own.

That same self-reflection has attracted me to still life studies of bone. To me, each skull is a memento mori--I find it inescapable to not face my own mortality, my own physicality-- when looking at bone. It is something we all have inside of us, hidden but present. I love it’s minimal color palette and it’s complexity and texture. I can lose myself in the caves and crevices, and in the strange abstract detail and contrast.

What I hope my viewer or reader would take away from anything that I make would be a feeling of attraction and mild discomfort. I want my technical skill and point of view to be clear, and for my style to come through on any medium.

Victoria Dalpe
victoriadalpe.blogspot.com 
http://www.amazon.com/Victoria-Dalpe/e/B00GKT7JN6