This fantastic work was painted by fourth-year animation major, Oni Culbreath.
This piece was an amazing journey for Culbreath. It was the first piece Culbreath had created solely for herself over the course of a couple of months. It started out as a simple sketch and then escalated into what Culbreath describes as “a rabbit hole of overthinking.” They envisioned this woman in their head and began to draw her, which helped Culbreath make sense of their thought process.
Culbreath wanted to paint her mostly exposed, and for the expression to be a bit unclear and left to the viewer’s interpretation. In the original draft of the piece, Culbreath had actually painted a more aggressive version of the painting where the hands were actively grabbing off parts of the woman. In the final piece, Culbreath decided to revise this and instead have the hands slowly creeping into the woman’s personal space.
Culbreath decided to keep their own personal interpretation of this piece to themselves, as they wanted the audience to come up with their own. But she will reveal that this piece evolved from a single emotion into the more general sensation of negative energies surrounding them, usually from those who do not want the best for them and want to make their way into Culbreath’s space. They describe this feeling as one that is also perpetuated by social media, where our entire lives are available to others.
Culbreath is an amazing, multi-talented artist as well as the creative director for Lotus Rosary, a brand that sponsors creatives. If you want to see more of their amazing work, visit their Instagram at @oniofhyrule.lotus.
The Instagram for the Lotus Rosary is @allie-jemison.
