Lover's Eye Series

This work plays on the convention of eye portraiture begun in the late 18th century during the Georgian period. Such paintings were often painted on ivory and commissioned as secret gifts for illicit lovers. I have excerpted images of women’s eyes from well-known paintings such as Manet’s Olympia and Ingres’ Odalisque as a way of celebrating the private lives to the artists’ models. The paintings give primacy to the gaze of the model looking out, rather than the male gaze of the original artist’s eye.