username: bradpurchase Painting

“Username:” is a series of portraits depicting people whom I have met through the internet. Most of my friendships and love interests have been found through chatrooms and social networking sites, rather than physical interaction. This context of communication and connection-making is entirely unique to the current generation of technology, and it has completely changed the way I develop relationships. To gather references for these portraits I used the means with which I communicate with each person. I attempted to push the initial abstraction caused by the poor quality of the images to illustrate the disconnection and two dimensionality of a long distance relationship. However, by creating the image using tangible media it reintroduces the physicality of that person.