“Pink Light”

Meghan Smith

24 x 48”: Acrylic on canvas

ARTIST STATEMENT

In a line that made me laugh from the book Trick Mirror, an ideal woman boasts “advanced skills in self-presentation and self-surveillance” on her life résumé, utterly consumed by and excited about her market-dictated existence. Even in isolation, where in theory I could finally indulge a ‘self’ that has nothing to do with how others see me, I’m still stuck in that cycle. My routine went on autopilot just to survive. To feel productive, I need a bra and combed hair and plucked eyebrows. To speak confidently on Zoom, I need my heavy-duty concealer and fake plastered smile. My outside still dictates my inside and I’m not sure how to escape.

In painting this uncomfortable self portrait, I was confronting the fact that I have the privilege to retreat inwards, if I want to, in the face of world chaos. There’s something disturbingly seductive about selfishness right now, the allure of obsessing over the one thing I can control (my own body).

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

After dabbling in different artistic media, and falling in and out of love with being an artist, Meghan Smith has returned to primarily monochrome representational painting. Her recent paintings have dealt with her own body, the beauty of her loved ones, sensuality/sexuality, and the blurred line between sex and violence in the worldview she grew up immersed in.

To find out more about Meghan and her current work, take a look at her Instagram (@meghan_zzz) or website.