acrylic on canvas; 16×20”
“This painting is inspired by the character nicknamed “Xanny” from the fictional town of Wallsocket, MI, created by indie musician underscores. Although she was born into privilege as the daughter of a billionaire, Xanny suffers with interpersonal relationships and uses drugs to cope. I analyzed an unreleased underscores track titled “Northwest zombie girl” that is thought to be written from Xanny’s perspective and visually interpreted a lyrical description of her at a lake—sitting on a rock, pacing around, and deteriorating under stress. The multiple identical figures throughout the painting represent her dissociation as she reflects on her seemingly privileged, yet arduous life. I took some of my own reference photos at Mitchell Memorial Forest, a local lake in my area, to properly depict the suburban teen experience.”
ARTIST BIO: Finley Nguyen is a grade 12 student at OHHS.