Couple, Redacted Gaze, Giraffe

These make me smile. The vintage with the unexpected.

Title: Couple, Redacted Gaze, Giraffe

This striking mixed-media collage merges a formal historical double-portrait with aggressive contemporary abstract marks and surreal elements. The central image features a sepia-toned photograph of a man and woman—likely a couple from the early 20th century—posed formally together.

The subjects' identity and connection are immediately disrupted by the signature application of horizontal, multi-colored (blue, yellow, orange) acrylic paint smears across both sets of eyes, enforcing anonymity and creating a "glitch" effect. The formal portraiture is further deconstructed by broad, expressive strokes of bright pink and purple paint along the top, bottom, and left side.

The composition is framed by layered ephemera, including a map fragment and a comic book panel. Most notably, a tall, plastic giraffe figure is collaged onto the right side of the work. This surreal, out-of-scale animal figure adds a layer of unexpected whimsy and depth, turning the intimate portrait into a surrealist landscape of memory and found objects.

• Medium: Mixed-Media Collage (Antique Photograph, Acrylic Paint, Found Object/Giraffe, Ephemera/Map)

• Themes: Anonymity, Relationship/Couplehood, Surrealism, Abstract Intervention

• Key Visuals: Double Portrait, Multi-Color Eye Redaction, Tall Plastic Giraffe