“Icon” is a piece where I aimed to convey how today’s society is obsessed with the superficial and the perfect exterior. While painting this, I drew inspiration from traditional religious icons, but instead of highlighting the sacred or spiritual, I chose to emphasize what we often place on a pedestal today: beauty, status, and façade.
The woman in the painting is a modern-day “saint,” framed like a deity, yet there’s an emptiness in her expression—a gaze that hints at something more beneath the surface. It’s as if she knows she’s an object of admiration, judgment, and scrutiny, but that this is all the world cares about.
I used warm and rich tones to evoke a sense of luxury and exclusivity, with the gold in the frame symbolizing the value we assign to such things in our society. This work is a commentary on how we idolize appearance while placing less emphasis on the substance beneath. It’s a modern icon—a symbol of our time’s superficial values.
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