Benjamin Likes Squirrels

"Looking at the subject is like meeting a person in that the viewer is forced draw immediate conclusions about the subject based on relatively little information." - Rine Boyer, from her statement

Rine Boyer's piece Benjamin comes from her "Animal Series," produced in 2009. The pieces in her collection include line portraits that are filled with details of little animals, big and small. In this particular piece, Boyer simplifies her piece to using only one color of ink on a plain tan background. The portrait itself is a cartoon-like outline of a young man we assume to be Benjamin. His clothing, skin, and hair is colored and modeled with squirrels varying in different sizes. The piece, laid on top of a wooden panel, is finally completed by a layer of shiny, high gloss resin. Benjamin has a very great decorative quality to it, overall giving it a nice hole-in-the-wall coffee shop aesthetic.

By Alana Voldman