. I recently discovered this young American painter –born in New Jersey, 1977. Soon, I published a couple of posts (on this blog and on my sister’s) with one of her paintings: “Morning After II”, which I liked very much, and triggered some bittersweet personal remembrances.

This self-portrait, “Welcome To”, is an older work (from 2005); equally excellent; also charged with emotional contents. I have often noticed that it is easy for photorrealist painters to let emotion stray (or die) behind their technical competence and attention to the minute details, but this is not at all the case with Monks.

What could I say, worth the time to read it, when the painting speaks so clearly by itself? I just heartily advice you to click on the image to get a much more detailed view (it really deserves it!).

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You can find many other works by Alyssa Monks on her official website.

[The cropped image in black and white in the header is just a fancy of mine; but also an experiment, just to see if the colour adds something significative; some deeper mood; to this portrait… I think it does. Nevertheless –I don’t know yet why – I like the desaturated image even more.]

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