Nick Lepard's The Event

Nick Lepard's The Event

Lepard, Nick. The Event. 2009. Oil on canvas.

 Nick Lepard is an artist I came across at the beginning of last fall (2011). I immediately fell in love with his artwork as it reminded me a bit of my hero's work, Jenny Saville. He had a way of capturing the face which really evoked the feelings of the archetypes and pulled the viewer into a different world both of recognition and the unknown. He received his BFA in 2008 from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Vancouver BC and since then has had many exhibitions in British Colombia as well as California. Lepard even did some lectures and residencies at the Capilano University in North Vancouver. You can find out all of this information and more at his website www.nicklepard.com I would highly recommend checking out his other works, I am looking forward to seeing him move farther into his artistic career.


 Looking now towards the deconstruction "scope", the portrait The Event evokes the shadow archetype of Jung's theories. The shadow archetype according to Jung was the dark side of humanity, and one had to conquer the shadow in order to assist in finding yourself.* This work has very subtle additions of non-local color, which reads both as abnormality, but also creates an additional field of depth into the work. The stare of the figure appears to be quite melancholy and the lips are drawn into what appears to be a pout. The emptiness of the stare, which is glancing back over the shoulder of the viewer, may be looking at the world. He is perhaps judging the world, gazing out over the wreckage and destruction that human beings have created upon themselves over years of perfecting war and brutality. That forlorn glance is almost begging the viewer to take a seat by him, stare out at the world with him, and perhaps attempt to make a difference and beat the shadow back in some way! 


 The brush strokes along the face especially around the nose and the mouth area begin to blur, creating a figure that appears to either be melting, behind frosted glass, or half emerging from water. This lapse of clarity seems to allude to atrophy or a figure hidden behind a veil or mask which begins to evoke the persona archetype. The persona archetype is the mask one assumes to fit into the roles given to us by society.* If looked at as atrophy, this once again alludes to the archetype of the shadow as atrophy is very similar to chaos and chaos is where the shadow rules. 


*Jung, Carl. The Integration of Personality. Collected Works Vol. (17). Princeton: 
  Princeton University Press, 1953. Print.