‘This Is Fine’ meme-inspired portrait and other works by Minneapolis artist Russ White
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Minneapolis artist Russ White has been drawing people since he was a kid.
“I’ve always drawn people. I think they’re endlessly fascinating, endlessly complicated,” White says.
White is showing a series of eight recent acrylic portraits called “Sitters” at Gallery 120 of the Inver Hills Community College in Inver Grove Heights. The artist paints, draws and collages his portraits — all of Minnesota locals — in bright, pop colors and a photo-realist style.
“I had another artist come to my studio recently and comment that he thought that I was interested in beauty, and I think that that’s true, but it’s a complicated sense of beauty,” White says. “I’m often looking for the wrinkles or the moles or the folds in the skin, or any of the things that we might traditionally consider imperfections, and those are the things that I find most interesting and most beautiful.”
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For years, colored pencils have been White’s main medium. Now he uses a combination of acrylic paint and digital collage and then finishes the fine details of a portrait in colored pencil. White photographs people who sit for portraits at his studio in the Casket Arts Building in northeast Minneapolis. For this series, he then added abstractions or additions, like houseplants, digitally before painting the composition on canvas.
There is one portrait in particular that has solicited reactions from viewers. The piece is called “This Is Fine,” after the ubiquitous meme of the same name that depicts a cartoon of a dog surrounded by flames. This painting features fellow Minneapolis artist Sean Ferris.
“I had him sit in this big green plush armchair, and instead of being surrounded by fire, he’s surrounded by houseplants,” White says. “He looks kind of despondent. He’s kind of gazing off into the distance, having a real moment of detachment. I found, especially since the election, that people have really resonated with that image.”
White says the painting is really a commentary on feeling overwhelmed by abundance.
“There’s a lot of life around him, but he seems to be overwhelmed by it, and maybe he’s overwhelmed by the responsibility of having to take care of all these houseplants or maybe he's just been reading the news — I don’t know,” White says.
“Sitters” is on view through Feb. 13. White will give an artist talk at 11 a.m. on Feb. 13., at the Inver Hills Community College Fine Arts Building.
