Marcella Lassen

I began painting at the age of 4 and knew from that age onward there was nothing else I wanted to do more. I pursued my art with passion and tenacity, fighting for it against all kinds of odds—and it has rewarded me richly. Today I am in the privileged position of being a fulltime professional artis...

I began painting at the age of 4 and knew from that age onward there was nothing else I wanted to do more. I pursued my art with passion and tenacity, fighting for it against all kinds of odds—and it has rewarded me richly. Today I am in the privileged position of being a fulltime professional artist and painting continues to lead me down extraordinary paths and into remarkable worlds of discovery.
Although my work is vividly contemporary, my technique is derived from the Old Masters of Western Art. Working exclusively in oil paint, I painstakingly apply layer upon layer of glazes to blocked out base colors. Color is exceedingly important to me, and I mix every single color that I use myself. I believe my color palette is part of my signature style. I usually have 8 or 9 composed paintings ready to be painted, and because my technique is very time-consuming, I spend 7 to 9 hours daily at the canvas. But I still find myself wishing for more hours in the day!
Though my paintings may appear photo-realistic upon first glance, a closer look reveals my more unique style of collaging people and objects together in one composition, without concern for scale or setting, giving each piece a sense of the surreal. I utilize this strategy to hold up a mirror to society as I investigate cultural icons, from celebrities to everyday objects weighted with meaning. I never paint full-faced figures, preferring to portray people from the cheekbones down in order to focus on the body language of the individual and what they might be expressing subconsciously. The driving force behind what I paint is the constant search for a more succinct expression of what my investigation into cultural icons has revealed.