A Celebration Of Life

A Celebration of Healing is Atlanta artist Sal Brownfield's paintings of lives touched by breast cancer. The works are not portraits destined for hallways of ancestors or painted to match a green sofa. They are symbols of healing. They are symbols of survival. They are symbols of courage. Each painting is a bold collaboration in which the subject matter is reflected on the model in the portrait. The paintings also shows a transition from chaos to calmness and maybe even from illness to healing.

Each painting is both representational and abstract, possibly designed to create a sense of serenity. On the other hand the painting are chaotic and heretic. The main focuses of the painting are the models. They are created on a hierarchical scale. The size of the models are enormous in comparison to the size of the composition. From the viewer's perspective it feels as if the models are towering over you. Also on most of the painting the eyes are muted or missing to give a sense of anonymity. A few models chose to have their images painted in the nude or slightly covered with a scarf or sarong. While other have chose to be completely covered. The models made the decision on how they would like to be depicted in their portrait. All the models bodies are well defined. The outline of the models are soft, light, dark, fat, and some are even thin. The contour of the legs, shoulders and arms are somewhat thick (fat) and sharp, but the rest of the body is fairly light and thin. In addition all the images appear to be healthy and strong.

The reason for that is probably because the lighting on the models are very brilliant, and they seem to gives off a warm calm sentiment. The clothing on the models are the one illustration of color pertaining to the model. There is a clear distinction in the color of the images between different ethnic groups. I believe this was done on purpose to let the world know that breast cancer has no preference and that this disease affects all human beings. Each portrait in addition has a pink ribbon that reflects breast cancer awareness.

The composition in a whole is very bright. It has many different colors, forms, texture, brushstrokes and light. All the painting are first painted with white and gold tones to begin. All the painting have many many layers. I had the opportunity to ask the artist how many layers he used in this portrait, he replied, "I layered the portrait until I felt it was complete." Next the artist begins to make his creation with organic shapes and brushstrokes these are something well defined and at other times it appears that the artist is in fact, just throwing the paint on the canvas. There are places on the portraits that look as if the paint is running down the. It is definitely an asymmetrical portrait. The portrait has horizontal,