Alice Colin : Where are you From?

During Alice Colin time as a Visiting Artist at the Gibbes museum, she jumped into an ancestry and art melding 15 portraits of diverse ethnic identity of women in South Carolina. Originally from Bordeaux, France, Alice’s is a self-taught artist with a background in psychology and communication. She is drawn to recycling and waste control, incorporating these values into her art by re-purposing recycled found materials in combination with acrylic colors.

She recruited a group of 15 local women to encompass various backgrounds, ages, CSP and skin colors. Each participant took a genetic ancestry test to define their ethnic heritage which translated into the colors in the painting.

To further personalize, the women were interviewed to gather their unique fingerprint. Alice reminiscing these identities fabrics, papers, small objects, to be added on the canvas as collages. The final pieces represent each woman’s identity on a 36 x 48 x 1.5 inch linen canvas. Smaller prints were then reproduced to sell in the Gibbes gift shop.

The exhibit opening was the first time each model/participant viewed the painting of themselves. It was a beautiful turnout celebrating the collective and the individual.

To see more from Alice, please jump over to her website.