Head in a Jar
2018, colored pencil, 8 x 10"




This piece straddles the divide between realism and fantasy. The subject—two cleaved hands gently holding a head captive in a giant glass vessel—calls to mind a take on the genie in a jar. Despite the motif’s enchanting theme, individual elements in the piece are rendered realistically; the shading of the glass, and the reflection of the hand’s color in the vessel are mimetic. A certain tension arises between the pernicious Cheshire grin of the ensnared head and the soft cold hands resting above and below the jar. Are they presenting the jar to someone? Or are they simply floating and are magical themselves? This deliberate omission of context renders the pieces to exist beyond place and time.












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