Eve Gallagher BA (Hons) Fine Art
The number of photographs uploaded to the internet every day has increased exponentially. I am fascinated by the circulation of images on the internet. I use the wonderful and weird world of the worldwide web to create and inspire my work, capturing moments that would ordinarily have been short lived social media snapshots in the permanency of artwork. This presents the opportunity to capture moods and expressions typified in such a medium in the contradictory elegance of oil painting on canvas. I collect images I come across on the internet and then upload them onto a ‘image gallery’. I then come back to the gallery for inspiration and for subjects which I take on to canvas. The images have stimulated or intrigued me to paint in a particular style or to reflect a particular mood or emotion.
Oil paint is the antithesis of photograph and digital imagery and therefore becomes an ironic presentation of a new world. The irony arises from the ability to capture detail through intricate brush strokes adding texture and depth. It also arises from the intention that observers will look at images with their own eyes rather than through the lens of a phone.
In my work I have treated social media imagery as both friend and foe. As a friend I have used photography and Instagram to track the progress and development of my art. I have had the opportunity to trawl large catalogues of inspiration creating a diversification in my subject matter while imposing my old style. As a foe I am competing for attention from an audience who can rapidly flick left or right if my work does not have the desired impact.
Painting is taking these digital images out of the original context into an art form. This leaves space for viewers to look at the pictures in a different sense, allowing the application of different meaning and interpretation.
