elissa levy

spin (newly born), 2011, newspaper, gouache, gel pen, spray paint, 37x32.5, bad boys turn to the bible, 2010, newspaper, gouache, gel pen, spray paint, 20x19, flag (the fans' affection), 2011, newspaper, gouache, gel pen, spray paint, 30x34

The dominant images in these works use images of athletes, politicians, celebrities and soldiers, cut from newspapers; magazines. The figures are abstracted by excising them from their original context, concentrating on the cores of the bodies, so that the limbs are visually amputated at the elbows & knees. Thus the figures are altered into ghost-like apparitions. This evokes both the amputees returning from war; the phenomena of "phantom limbs," the reported sensations that amputees feel in the parts of their bodies that are no longer there. The energy in the original is subsequently halted, mid movement, yet lingers, as in a dream.

see more here.