.jpg "Untitled (Fly 2), 2014 by Faris McReynolds")
Oil on canvas
42 by 52 inches (approx)
I was exploring two things with this body of work.
I wanted to make a new kind of "group portrait" to extend beyond what I had been doing in a more literal sense, like a mosh pit as a group portrait, and approach something less rooted in reality.
I also had this idea that if "psychedelia" in art and music was the result of cross-cultural exploration (rock and jazz in the 60s, The Beatles using a sitar, etc,) what about cross-species experience?
This image is based on an old scientific illustration of how a fly sees the world. And given that I wanted to work from the vantage point of an observer, the fly seemed like a great place to start.