Jaleel Blanchard

BA Honors | Painting

ARTIST BIO

My name is Jaleel Blanchard and I’m an Studio art major from New Orleans, Louisiana. I enjoy drawing and painting people and trying to capture their emotions and personality. I’ve spent most of my time learning from masters of figure painting such as Michaelangelo, John Singer Sargent and Gustav Klimt. I also look to inspiration from contemporary and modern artists such as Kehinde Wiley, Kadir Nelson, and Frida Khalo. When I’m not learning about I enjoy spending my time watching psychological thrillers, playing video games, and running (sometimes from my problems). One day I hope to be a fine figure painter or illustrator.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Weather Report

Let me tell you a story, it’s a typical story actually. It’s about a person raised to think that the entire world is after him when in fact he just pushes people away so often that he can’t even gain the enemies for it to count as him against the world. He’s not really all that different; he has ‘sad boi hours’, hates his body, and bullies himself into uncharted emotional territory. He fears not the rejection but the process that leads up to rejection by these people. Who are these people, however? They are the people his thoughts revolve around.

With my work, I bring down the walls that protect my emotions and allow the viewer to see the types of relationships that I share with the people around me in my young adult life. My insecurities and vulnerabilities impact how I define those close to me and why I often isolate myself. My paintings reveal the kinds of relationships I have with those in my life even as I try to figure out how to manage my anxieties with regard to romance, friendship, and personal identity. 

Playing with the idea of self-therapy, I take the insecurities and loneliness that have left me in the dark and use it to showcase my feelings towards those around me. I am finally giving light to the cycles of personal struggle I deal with while navigating the idea of a relationship and confronting my insecurities. 

Come as you are my friend

Oil paint on wood panel | 36X48 | 2020

Garden of Dysphoria

Oil Paint on wood panel | 36X48 | 2020

I wonder if she can fly

Oil Paint on wood panel | 36X36 | 2019

I wonder if she can fly: B-side

Oil Paint on wood panel | 24X18 | 2020

Icarus

Oil Paint on wood panel | 36X36 | 2020