Alex Garant

         The paintings created by Alex Garant cannot be compared to anything I have seen before. In all her works she creates women with the appearance of double vision to the audience. Because of this, Alex Garant is commonly known as the Queen of Double Eyes in the art community. Her style of painting “double” women occurred as a result of having a heart attack in 2012. Alex Garant has stated that the experience has changed her views of everything on life and her perception of the world. Since then she has completed 60 oil paintings that can all be viewed on her website www.alexgarant.com along with commentary. Her work is well recognized through her use of duplication of body parts, patterns in the background, and symmetry. She uses a technique called double exposure to include two different images into a single one; it is basically layering two objects over each other. Alex Garant also works as a makeup artist, which explains the focus on facial features in her art. Each painting is a portrait of a woman, but Alex emphasizes that she creates Pop Art. She claims that portraits only attract the person drawn, and other people cannot connect with it; through her illusions everyone has the opportunity to make their own interpretations of the work.

         

 

            The painting I want to feature is called “Death Flight” and it features a woman with two sets of eyes with a butterfly making up her face. The art presents a theme of how people hold differing views on everything. This is seen through the double eyes featured in the painting. The eyes are identical but by making two sets of eyes, Garant stresses that humans will never see situations in the same way as others. Both sets of eyes are looking at the butterfly and see the same thing, but the use of two sets of eyes shows the different understandings that can be held by people. Then there is a second theme, which presents the idea that death can be beautiful. This is seen through the skull drawn on the back of the butterfly. Also from looking at the title, the contrast between death and flight is very shocking. Death to most people is drowning, but Alex chose to show death as a flight. The artist portrays this idea again when using a butterfly to represent death. The butterfly is seen as a beautiful insect whereas a cockroach or spider would have changed the entire meaning of this painting. The butterfly symbolizing death is layered over the face of a beautiful woman. The idea of death seen through the painting is very inviting and calm rather than chaotic and feared.

         

     Ever since I have seen Alex Garant on Tumblr, she became my favorite artist. I personally find beauty through feminine features. Through the plumpness of the lips, the hazel eyes, and the long lashes I find the woman in “Death Flight” attractive. Then to have the optical illusion with the butterfly, I sat down and looked at it for five minutes. I saw meaning through the art and personal contemplations of the piece. Afterwards, I searched up more of her artwork and began to see that it revolved on women and facial features. Each one has a message behind it and is very distinct from one another. It can be arguably beautiful because of the fact that is focuses on women and certain features. Just look at the colors she uses in her paintings. They are pop against each other without dominating the whole painting. They all blend to create a soft visual on the eyes. People can see beauty in paintings of nature and food, but to draw a person’s face in such precision and color I believe Alex Garant has great talent. To recognize that she has talent means that her art in the end is good art although it may not be considered beautiful to all.