the less you see...

So much stuff to see!

I know I cant be the only one who is sometimes overwhelmed.  There is just so much stuff to see and read everywhere. I am very limited in my use of social media. I can go weeks without even looking at instagram or twitter, never mind actually posting any content. Some days I just feel I cant handle any more content in my head. Maybe it's because I sit in front of screen every single day in life.

Oddly though, Pinterest doesn't seem to involve the same pressure. It's more random and accidental and in many ways reminds me of flicking through a magazine. I never know what I am going to see next. But on instagram or twitter I know I am going to see someones perfectly curated and staged life. My own life feels far too messy and dull to wrestle it into anything vaguely resembling a stylish shot or a witty tweet.

I'm thinking that maybe this is why I have been so smitten with the work of Henrietta Harris the last few weeks. There is an air of mystery and intrigue there. I want to look at an image and wonder what is going on. Why are their faces obscured? What are they or Henrietta trying to hide. I love looking at the thickness of the paint. The style and rhythm of the strokes and the marks she makes...

Since graduating in 2006 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Auckland University of Technology, Henrietta has steadily built up a name for herself as a talented New Zealand artist.

She has skilfully hand-drawn hands, faces, brains, glaciers and more which have appeared in shows all over New Zealand, Australia, London and New York, on t-shirts, on record covers and in fine print publications.

Her paintings often involved portraiture with a departure into the surreal with faces skillfully obscured and misplaced by the clean sweep of a brushstroke. She primarily works with watercolour paint on paper.

Her clients include Vanity Fair (France), The Department Store (Auckland), Karen Walker, BITE Magazine, Flying Nun Records, VERAMEAT, Coffee Supreme (New Zealand), Ruby (New Zealand), and many more.

In the way that everything is subjective, while I adore the faces obscured in that germoline pink colour, when they are obscured in gold they don't resonate with me the same way. I have utterly no idea why that is???

So maybe it's just like Luis Bunuel said - "Mystery is the basic element of all works of art" 

We all need a little more mystery in our lives

Queen Marie