Art challenges us even as it reflects our lives — that, in fact, is how art works. It holds up a mirror to show us all the forces battling within us, the duality of our natures, and the drama we might otherwise miss when we're caught up living life. The great painters can achieve such lofty feats with images that comfort us and draw us in before revealing their secrets. Some might see that as trickery, and it is a trick of sorts; it's an illusion, but an illusion with a purpose, not an illusion for its own sake. And it's what's waiting within the painting — what you find after meeting its challenge — that makes artwork great.
Award-winning artist Joel Rea hails from Australia. He works primarily in oil on canvas, creating super-realistic images and placing them in surreal situations.
Works such as The Promised Land show Joel's tendency to pit forces against each other - man vs. animal, man vs. nature, nature vs. animal.
It's a theme he has played with throughout his career — and it's quite an accomplished career even though he's only 32 years old.
"My paintings reveal to me what I'm personally obsessed with and a recurring theme is this duality within nature," he says. "As nature myself, I'm rife with the same kind of duality, whether it be the inner forces that drive my mental behavior or just the physical experience of witnessing the natural world. It's that combination of the savage and the beautiful that really motivates me to make this work."
In See Me, a man barely keeps his head above water. Nature is threatening to kill him even as the sun pokes through the clouds. We don't need to see sharks swimming in the water; he's already surrounded by peril.
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