PHOTO BOOTH (2024)

As I neared completion of GRID:100 Mini Paintings, I increasingly felt the restriction of the small 8”x 6” surface area. What started as a manageable image area became a restrictive box that refused to hold the stories I wanted to tell. Around number 75, I became nearly despondent wishing I had given myself more grace than a ten-month timeline. I took two weeks off to take longer walks with my dog and clean my house - creating some headspace for a fresh perspective. In my cleaning, I found a strip of photo booth photographs taken with my sister and my cousin. I looked at our faces crushed together into the tight, restrictive frame. The mandatory proximity, the urgency in our expressions to stay in the frame and I felt freed. This painting is a composite of the whole strip selecting each face to represent the different moods present in old photo strips. The person that hogs the frame, one who is caught off guard entirely, ghoulish and distracted & the one crushed into the bottom of the frame desperately trying to maintain their inclusion in the keepsake.

GRID:100 Mini Paintings was funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the City of Dubuque.

EXHIBITIONS:

2024 GRID: 100 MINI PAINTINGS, ANDONIA GIANNAKOUROS STUDIO, DUBUQUE, IA