ART SPOTLIGHT

Today, I really want to share an artist who is a personal favorite of mine. I discovered them via Artchipel (here), who features a different artist and his/her art work every day. I am absolutely in love with this site, and I find that it is an excellent way to explore new artists and to find out about up and coming artists across the world. 

The artist I wanted to showcase today is, Alyssa Monks, a Brooklyn based artist who uses a variety of mediums to achieve her surreal art. Her obsession with recreating realism is absolutely stunning, and achieves artwork that is like none other. Ms. Monks surely has her own reasoning for her paintings, and these are only the emotions that I was struck with.
I was immediately hit with a mixture of emotions that related to the constraints of femininity, as well as the struggles that women face everyday. Her recreation of steam, water  and cellophane, somehow struck home with me. The simple recreation of material objects, and various forms of water molecules was somehow a representation of looking behind a veil. A representation of women who are trapped behind the murky expectations that we as a society are suppressed to fulfill, because our gender requires it. With the stroke of a paintbrush, Mrs. Monks brings to life sexuality, stereotypes, pain, joy, and the constraints of our gender. This art is inspiring, its mind blowing, and it's whatever you want to see it as. She has blended a mixture of mediums into something that is beyond real, but is yet surreal and real at the same time.

 {Please not all of these images were gathered from here and I have no association with Artchipel or the artist, I'm simply an admirer hoping to spread these beautiful pieces}