(14,569 likes) Painting

As a realist painter living through social media, I’ve stumbled upon a movement, an ideal. I began to notice a particular aesthetic saturating the cyber world. This aesthetic presents to the general public an ideal lifestyle in one’s home, ways to seize the everyday. These lifestyle Instagram accounts give us a façade, beautifully lit photographs, overexposed whites, design, and an overall positive outlook that could be interpreted as “fake.” There are both positive and negative responses to the idea of “living authentic” through Instagram accounts. I record interiors taken by lifestyle and branding professionals, and indicate how many people buy into the images by inserting the number of “likes” they have received. I alter these Instagram photos to make a place of contemplation simply by abstracting details and leaving the viewer with the source’s natural design and composition. And through this investigation I get to paint bright, well-composed images “on location” and raise art-world awareness of this aesthetic online movement.