Lacey Gerard, 26, lives in Chicago and loves to paint. The majority of these works are from a highly productive time for her, between 2002 and 2004.

A friend once commented to Lacey that her paintings show her vulnerabilities. She says she knows that's the truth: it's her weaknesses that inspire her to create something she considers "true."

These paintings are all watercolor and ink, and are under 18" x 24" in dimension. Enjoy and read along as Lacey describes how they came to be.

Vonnegut Hand

I did this illustration for a class. We were reading "Bagambo Snuff Box," a collection of short stories by Kurt Vonnegut, one of my favorite writers. The story this piece illustrates is called "Souvenir" and it involves a door-to-door salesman and a pocketwatch.

Am Split

I worked on this painting in 2003 when I was exploring the relationship between technology and humanity. I did many paintings involving robots and people. Often, I'd play up the "robotic-ness" of our daily routines. Think Fight Club. I love painting disembodied heads—it implies simplification, and you can really focus on what might be going on inside that head. As I've grown as a painter, I've felt less and less interested in this path of thinking, just because I think there's less "numbness" and more happiness, but maybe that's a reflection of my own existence.

Backbiting 2

This painting is the second version of "Backbiting." The original was smaller and used a floating robot-like head. I wanted to do another one for two reasons: 1) I sold the first one and 2) because I wanted to show people that looked more real. This is my visual interpretation of what backbiting is. She speaks, what she speaks is death-related (soul-killing), and someone else watches on.

Beautiful

This was painted after I decided to cut off all my hair in protest of what most people considered "feminine" or "beautiful."  At the time, I was without a car and was biking or walking most places. I also was beginning to think that many men desired women only in a sexual way. Also, this was a reaction to the idea that a person thought I would sacrifice my beliefs for them—this didn't actually happen, but just thinking about it made me angry enough to paint this. A logistical note: I sketched this piece on 18" x 24" paper, stuck mailbox letters to the page, painted and inked over it, then peeled the letters off. They took strips of the paper with them which distressed me at first, then I realized it added to the piece.

BigFace

For a while, I was thinking about painting a graphic novel, only I really didn't have a story. I still wanted to paint, though, so I did these 11" x 14" pages using cropped faces. This was one page. Up close, there is a lot of black ink splattered everywhere, and I used myself as the foundation image for this piece.

 

Rocks

I used mailbox letters again for this one. There is a poem I wrote on this piece and the gist of it is about hopeful expectations and the feeling of disappointment that comes when expectations go unfulfilled. One thing I took away from this painting is that trusting God more and wishing for ridiculous things less is very productive.

Fiercely Independent

I love comic books, so I wanted this to have a "flat" feel to it. There is a kind of stream-of-consciousness thought coming out of her mouth about safety being a figment of the imagination. Just imagine you're safe, and you are.

Seaweed

I love the look of shiny against matte, so in this piece I mixed metallic and matte acrylic ink. There's something about strikingly vertical pieces that also appeals to me.

 Sinking Heart

Sirens

Split

This is a more embellished version of "Am Split."

They

Despite the fact that this might look kind of serious (or even scary), it actually emerged out of a humorous idea. I always think it's funny when people say that "they" are doing this or that. "They" are going to build a new interstate. "They" say this and that. This painting shows my interpretation of those nonexistent people.

Underwater Dream

This painting came from a dream I had about a submarine that was underwater going along and suddenly, a big hand grabbed the sub and pushed it down into the water. In my dream, it was a hand with a ruffled cuff, and I interpreted it at the time as the hand of God. The hand then let go and disappeared without any explanation. It seemed to me that this was a lesson that God is supreme and no matter what control we feel we have over the world, it's ultimately God who holds the master plan because there are so many things humans can't control. It's really a lesson in trust that we're able to function with this understanding.