Artist 15: Sylvia Ji

As I think I've said before, I'm a sucker for pretty dresses. Add to that quality costume makeup. Yes, I played dress up obsessively as a young child. Now that I've made my confessions, let me get to the art.

This artist creates portraits of women. They have highly ethnic elements to them, like the Mexican Dia de los Muertos makeup and the traditional Spanish veils or the halo that surrounds the Madonna and saints in Renaissance paintings. Some of them seem to be blended really ambiguously, which makes me wonder about the authenticity. Is the artist even Hispanic? Or does she just like Mexican/Spanish culture? Hard to say, and probably not terribly important, but all of the confusion does maybe take away from the meaning of the ethnic elements.
I like also the surreal element of the paintings. The artist sets her figures in vague planes of color. Sometimes she uses a gradient. But she usually uses the background colors on the figure somehow either with clothes or accessories, so the paintings feel very unified. She uses romantic elements such as flowers or butterflies to complement the figure and Viola! Super romantic ethnic painting.
Last note. Her poses seem to be based off of traditional portraiture, especially of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, but a lot of them are cropped or framed slightly differently for a nice little twist.

Check out her website here.