Skin Deep
Painting major Coleen Cosner (CFA’08) zooms in on her subjects. In her painting Nosey, she enlarges a section of her subject’s face to fill a four-foot-by-five-foot canvas.
“My work is focused on the skin — more so, the little imperfections that make us unique: freckles, moles, birthmarks,” Cosner says. “My goal is to produce paintings that bring the viewer to an uncomfortable level of interaction with the canvas by enlarging small things, such as a nose, and making it into an in-your-face experience.”
Cosner uses oil paints to create the effect, with a color palette unique to the subject.
“I want to heighten the role of skin, from being a familiar item that we all have to a surface that gives one identity and sets each human apart from each other,” she says.
Kimberly Cornuelle can be reached at kcornuel@bu.edu.