High Brow
Eyebrows are the most expressive feature on a face. They give so much information about people, their thoughts, and their emotions.
High Brow is an art exploration where I demonstrate that even just seeing someone’s eyebrows, you can still identify who they are, what they are like, and what emotions they’re experiencing.
High Brow: A Digital Portrait Series
Taking a look at people through their eyebrows and patterns.
Self-Portrait
My first work in the series: A painting that triggered the thought, “Do other people have distinctive eyebrows, or is it just me?”
High Brow: A Digital Portrait Series was selected to be featured and displayed in the 2019 LibertyTown Arts Workshop Invitational Show.
Commissioned Works
A handful of High Brow portraits that people have paid me to paint. (Yes, really.)
Artist Statement
My motivation for High Brow is based on the struggles, triumphs, and acceptance of my trichotillomania, a body focused repetitive behavior where people have the urge to pull out their own hair. For fifteen years, my eyebrows have been my target and there have been periods of time where they were filled with bald patches. I still pull, but my eyebrows have grown in to become my most defining feature. They’ve become a crucial part of my self-identity. As a result of my trich, I focus a lot on other people’s eyebrows because of my own self-consciousness. Eyebrows are the most expressive feature on a face. They give so much information about people, their thoughts, and their emotions. Through High Brow, I wanted to demonstrate that even without half of someone’s face shown, you can still identify who they are, what they are like, and what emotions they’re experiencing based on their eyebrows and the background that is related to their personality and aesthetic.
High Brow began as a singular painted self-portrait. It evolved over the course of a year to become a digital portrait series featuring nine of my peers, which I presented as my Undergraduate Senior Thesis Project at the University of Mary Washington in 2019. Since graduation, I have continued to create paintings and digital portraits for this series.