Artist Gina Jrel

	The World In My Eyes © Artist Gina Jrel, 2007 Medium: Oil, acrylic, beads, acrylic jewels, czech glass, costume jewelry, and antique skeleton keys on gallery-wrapped canvas Dimensions: 30"w x 40" h Edge Treatment: Gallery-wrapped canvas edges are hand-painted solid black, with a glossy, raised, black swirl design bordering all edges. Framing: N/A - Hand-painted, gallery-wrapped edges Price: $3,500 Original available for purchase: Yes Available in Giclee: Yes Based on the One-Liner: "Let me take you on a trip... Round the World and back... Let me show you the world in my eyes..." From the Song: The World in My Eyes Performed By: The Cure (remake of the song by Depeche Mode) From the CD: Music For the Masses (Tribute to Depeche Mode) About the Painting: The world in my eyes? Since I quit the day job, it is...in a nutshell...a bizarre mixture of realism and fantasy. This piece was an attempt to capture a little of that somewhat surreal mood. The song is a little dark and mysterious, so I followed suit with my color schemes and lighting effects. I mixed my whimsical, curvilinear painting style with glimpses of realism. I got this piece about 3/4 the way done, and had to sit it aside. It wasn't finished, and I felt it was missing something, but wasn't sure what. One afternoon, I was sitting outside on my patio and witnessed two large, orange monarch butterflies dancing together above my flower garden. They were twisting together, then apart, creating a wonderful graceful motion. I loved that image, wanted to save it in some way, and the painting came to mind. Butterflies are symbolic of change, the metamorphosis of things, and I use them in paintings frequently when changes are present in my life. Recently, my life feels like a swirling whirlpool of changes, so they seemed to fit into this piece nicely. The figure in this piece holds her arms open, the palms of her hands face up. It is an intentionally selected pose: a non-verbal, welcoming invitation for the viewer to visit the world in my eyes. To me, there is also something reminiscent of the crucifix pose in this painting: Christ on the cross, the sacrifice. I discovered this early on in the painting, and chose to leave it that way and add the crown of flowers to the figure's head. For me, inviting people - virtual strangers - into my own world is a sacrifice of my privacy. Privacy of my thoughts, feelings, experiences, perspectives. But I am an emotional painter, opening my world to others to observe, judge, hate, love, reject, enjoy: it is a necessary sacrifice to be true to myself and what I do.