This afternoon, I had the privilege of meeting Norwalk artist Paul Mindell, whose art piece “Align Through Time: The Painted Muse, the Pixilated View,” hangs in my office. Mindell, who has been painting since he was a kid growing up on Long Island, makes portraits and photo collages known as “LandEscapes” made up of hundreds of overlapping photographs. This piece is part of that series and was selected as one of 49 winners of the 2009 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition and was displayed in the National Portrait Gallery in 2009 and 2010. It’s a beautiful piece, and I think it is best explained through Mindell’s own words:
The idea for “Align...” was drawn from the uncanny resemblance of my student Anthony to a young Rembrandt. I envisioned connecting paint and pixel, and spatial and temporal relationships. While my portraits are traditional and realistic, my photo collages explore fragmentation and reinvention.
Shot mostly with my cell phone camera in four separate studios, “Align…” addresses that duality: my oil portrait of Betty, standing nearby, counters a B&W digital photo of Anthony, who sits beside two computer images of Rembrandt’s self-portrait. The canvas portrait of Anthony with Rembrandt hair was partly painted, partly photo-shopped.
Entering the scene, you thread your way on stepping-stone-like stools to Rembrandt, then skip back to the future, past Betty, where a barely visible young woman lingers with her BlackBerry.
You can learn more about Paul and read his biography and artistic philosophy here.