Brienna McLaughlin Pruce - paintings

Brienna McLaughlin Pruce http://brienna.net

Confinement acrylic on canvas, 47" x 47" 2007

A crowntail displays its fins to fight a dead fish. acrylic on canvas, 47" x 47" 2007

Their colors live outside their contained existence acrylic on canvas, 35" x 47" 2007

Male and female betta oil on canvas, 48" x 66" 2006

Betta fish are considered disposable items that can be checked out, returned (dead), and discarded much like cheap plastic toys.

Water dyed blue oil on canvas, 47" x 47" 2006

Stacked to the ceiling oil on canvas, 95" x 54" 2006

Fish are foreign, and we have difficulty feeling sorry for something other than ourselves. oil on canvas, 54" x 190" 2007

Magnifying bettas to human scale and portraying their environment from a fish eye perspective provokes the question: what if that dying fish were me?

The beginning and the end mixed media, 10" x 10" 2007

Inside their world mixed media, 10" x 10" 2007

Bettas stored in picnic cups mixed media, 10" x 10" 2007

Prices on a blue tank mixed media, 10" x 30" 2007

Isolated amidst many mixed media, 10" x 10" 2007

The betta fish signify the trapped and suffering animals of the world.

Little living paintings mixed media, 10" x 10" 2007

One empty tank mixed media, 10" x 10" 2007

Betta Tanks I mixed media, 10" x 30" 2007

Betta Tanks II mixed media, 10" x 30" 2007

Fish in glass bowls mixed media, 10" x 10" 2007

Fish in plastic cups mixed media, 10" x 10" 2007

The betta is the overlooked, forgotten animal, merely appreciated for superficial aesthetic qualities; it represents all of our shallowness and pain.

Fish Eye VI mixed media, 10" x 10" 2006

Fish Eye VIII mixed media, 6" x 6" 2006

Fish Eye X mixed media, 10" x 10" 2007

Their existence is a plastic cup with barely enough water to survive.

Fish Eye XII mixed media, 10" x 10" 2007

Fish Eye XIII mixed media, 10" x 10" 2007

Fish Eye XIV mixed media, 10" x 10" 2007

Through my paintings, I hope to reinforce our connection to other living beings and remind us of the fragility of life.

The manager said, “Next time, call before visiting so I can move the betta fish into tanks because people often get upset by images of fish in cups.” mixed media, 10" x 10" 2007

A child found a fish wedged between the tank dividers, dying. mixed media, 10" x 10" 2007

Someone asked, “Which one do you want to save?” mixed media, 10" x 10" 2007

Our own living and working environments are not much better with apartments stacked sky-high and claustrophobic cubicles providing barely enough room to move. acrylic on canvas, 95" x 54" 2007

It is my hope that we recognize ourselves as the betta, and our world as a plastic cup.

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Brienna McLaughlin Pruce - paintings

by Brienna Pruce on Feb 17, 2010

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Brienna McLaughlin Pruce - paintings — Presentation Transcript