Symbiont Ilaria Yew Painting

In my paintings I explore community, interdependence, and interconnectivity, especially regarding humanity’s place in its cities, with the Earth, and in the cosmos. I use acrylic photo transfer as the foundation of my paintings, a technique that I have been perfecting for the past five years. I select images from photographs that I have taken, in order to develop an idea or emotion. It’s important to me that I am the one who has taken the source photograph, as it gives me a direct connection to the image - the image is something that I have been in front of and had direct experience with. These images range from candid shots of my friends that have an aesthetic interest to photographs that are posed specifically to express a certain idea. I manipulate the photographs digitally, often combining several shots, until the image is one that I’m excited to work with. I then create the under-painting by painting directly onto a black-and-white laser print with acrylic, before transferring it onto the canvas with acrylic gel medium or gesso. The transfer at this point resembles an old-fashioned hand-tinted black and white photograph. From there I build up the painting with layers of oil paint, taking care to react to what occurs in the painting as it develops out of the original source photograph. Sometimes I will spend hours staring at the painting to understand where it wants to go. Each painting becomes a voyage of discovery; each portrait becomes as much about me as it is about the subject. In this way I combine photography and painting- photography which has the ability to capture a fleeting instant in time, a moment that is soon lost forever. Painting then allows me to subjectively explore that moment, colouring it with memories, dreams, and hints from my own subconscious.