Kristy Blackwell uses figurative realism to depict her perception of grief, anxiety and loneliness. The void surrounding her subjects carefully rendered in oil or graphite can seem ominous in its emptiness. Her figures, sometimes rendered in duplicate to suggest strength alongside vulnerability create a psychological barrier, here often rendered in gold leaf rings, between the inner mind and the infinite unknown. There is common understanding in these personal images: beauty in sadness and in strength, beauty in vulnerability and in protection.
