Jessica Sebok – Q4 Art Competition

Artist Portfolio Magazine – 2017 Q4 Art Competition

Jessica Sebok – Edwardsville, IL
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Artist Statement: Jessica Sebok

I find myself always coming back to faces and facial structures. I use the term “facial structures” because for me a face is constructed by overlapping well-defined planes of color. Building is actually the most appropriate word I could use to describe my process. From afar, my portraits seem to be experienced as one unified image. In close proximity, however, the faces reveal the way I created that coherence. The image is actually constructed by chunks, flecks, streams, and strokes of tangled colors that cooperate to create the shadow and light of a 3 dimensional face. My process reflects the way I see faces. I do not see eyes, ears, a mouth and nose. I see segmented organic shapes created by light and shadows that work together to create an actual image.

I start by using a reference photo to lay down the first layers of shadow and this enables me to continue building the portrait. My paintings and drawings are not reproductions, they are a representation of how I freely combine and build faces.