Melissa Faithful for Art-Sheep
Crystal Barbre is a Seattle painter with a line of raw, spectacular works where women are in power, a power given to them by the animal heads they’re pulling off.
Barbre’s skillful technique and the intense expression of lust she incorporates in her figures give a mysterious, passionate feelings about her creations. Discussing animal and basic human instincts, the artist offers her subjects an enigmatic, sexual power that allows them to act in a way they would never had the chance to. Through their animal masks, these bodies are not driven by their emotions and vulnerability -as male painters often like to depict women, but they are motivated by the strength their attire’s anonymity holds. This element makes them unique, invisible and able to do whatever they desire. According to Greek mythology the condition of having the head of an animal is called Theriocephaly and it is a common theme in storytelling, that holds a symbolic element.
