Alice by Rene Lynch

Rene Lynch

"My work explores that period of puberty that embodies pure spirit and an inchoate knowledge of power and vulnerability, when a child begins to break free and desires, like Alice in Wonderland, to see what is beyond the looking glass.

My images depict the blurred boundary dividing innocence and experience, and provide an intense examination of that nexus where childish fantasy collides with a growing realization of the body, of sexuality and its power. That cusp in life between the unselfconscious exuberance of childhood, and adulthood with its inevitable series of responsibilities and regrets. In that middle period the individual's savage, reckless, and extravagant traits are not yet tamed, before they are encultrated to society's expectations and limits. The adolescent's instincts are honed and sharp. There is a certain honesty to this time in life when intuitive nature is ascendant and the true nature with its raw emotions and untapped and confusing desires are on the surface. I am fascinated at how the body of a young teen reveals its inner vulnerability by the awkward turn of the shoulders, the inward turn of the foot or the expression on the lip. Smoothly worked with a glowing translucence, my watercolor and oil paintings are composed in a large empty field stripped of all that is superfluous, and in this way the central figure becomes iconic.

I draw inspiration from my own interpretations of the violent struggles, curiosity and coming of age stories of classic fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and mythology."

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