I came across Amy Bennet and thought I’d share. These are paintings, by the way.
From her bio,
Two years ago, I contsructed a 1:87 scale model neighborhood, a fictitious cluster of eleven houses depicted through model railroading miniatures, styrofoam, cardboard, and plastic, complete with string telephone wires and working lights. The process of designing and assembling the setting over several months triggered my imagination to develop characters to populate the place along with a loose timeline of events that would culminate in the neighborhood’s history. I considered who lived in each home, their family dramas, and the way their private lives might spill into view of their neighbors. The model became a stage on which to develop the psychological implications of belonging to a particular family, with all of its dramas, struggles and familiar routines. I thought: this tree will be taken down after an old man crashes into it; a father will transform this lawn into an ice skating rink; this house will be abandoned after its residents are scandalized on the evening news.
ZOMG! Its the Sims on canvas!
I know… I thought the same thing. I find it fascinating, is that wrong?
Its the Sims on canvas!
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The more interesting question in my mind is a more preliminary one: Why are you fascinated by her work?
I find the idea of a narrative series of paintings interesting–especially as it’s essentially a suburban narrative centered on the tragedies and comedies of family life. The setting is intimately familiar, but distanced by the scale. At its heart, it’s a kind of romantic realism.