Maldha Mohamed, an artist who lives in The Maldives, has a moving portfolio of ethereal human subjects. Her entire Instagram feed is worth examining, but what caught my attention was her focused efforts on the human eye. Within a few life-size inches of human flesh, she can meticulously depict emotional intensity and realism. Mohamed talked to My Modern Met about her work:
Although the 22-year-old artist assigns titles to each completed piece, such as Lust and Desire, she says that many of her viewers find different interpretations of the artworks. When seeing one eye “cropped,” the imagination can muse on the rest of the human face and project different expressions.
“It excites me to paint (the eyes), as I try to make them as raw as possible, to give them depth and life,” the artist says. Maldha uses a variety of brushstrokes and textures on the wooden panels, adding dimension to the small portraits. In many of the pieces, this thick application of paint “swirls” around the picture like an emotional current.