2005

David Vanadia painting by feminist Gwenn Seemel

portrait of David Vanadia painted in acyrlic on canvas by queer Gwenn Seemel

commissioned portrait painting by Gwenn Seemel

Lyndsay Hogland portrait painting by woman artist Gwenn Seemel

portrait of a man painted by Gwenn Seemel

The surrealist painter René Magritte once painted over two hundred paintings in a single year, so I challenged myself to do the same in 2005. I didn’t break sixty—and that’s counting the works from my two conceptual series of 2005 along with the paintings shown here. My hat is off to Magritte!

Besides testing my mettle as an artist, 2005 was about love for me—and, more specifically, about the beginning of a love that endures. That summer, I met the person who is now my partner.

show at the Everett Station Lofts in Portland — photo by Gwenn Seemel

From the first David helped me to be a better artist. I was finishing up Private Masks and Public Faces when my partner came into my life, but the discussions we had about these series shaped their presentation significantly. In 2006, he affected my work more obviously by actually becoming a part of my conceptual series, Mutually Beneficial.