After staring at an unflattering photograph of the 45th President of the United States for over 300 hours, Ryan Nephew completed his intentionally incomplete creation. His work speaks for itself, but the purpose and rationale behind that work was ambiguous — until now. Perhaps that was his intention all along. Nevertheless, here’s what he had to say about it:
I’ll address the elephant in the room: why did you create a gigantic close-up of Donald Trump’s face?
It took me a relatively long time to decide on Donald Trump as my subject, but I figured I couldn’t go wrong choosing such an unpredictable social/mainstream media train wreck. He’s an undeniably polarizing and unforgettable figure in popular culture, so I wanted to use that to my advantage. I also found it challenging to find a picture suitable to work with, given that I needed a specific picture quality for details.
What did you use to create this piece?
I decided to try chalk pastels, which actually give an interesting ‘paint-like’ effect. Before pastels, I started working on a charcoal drawing referencing a different photo of Trump, but I abandoned it because it started to look like more of an homage to him, which is something I wanted no part of.
What was your work process like?
I had a really weird and sporadic schedule. For the first month I worked 12-14 hours each day and rarely took breaks. I’d start at around 4 or 5 in the afternoon and work non-stop until about 7 in the morning. Shockingly, that’s not a very sustainable method, so after a couple months of working on the piece on and off I ended up taking 3-month hiatus where I didn’t even look at it. I’ve learned that if you have a goal to finish something, you can’t rush it. You have to be patient and work at a level of intensity that’s viable and organic. If your passion is starting to turn into a chore, take some time to reflect on what the end goal is and go from there.
What was it like staring at Donald Trump’s face every day?
It sucked. He’s fucking gross. But after the first few sessions I just zoned into each section I was working on rather than observing the picture as a whole – I treated each section as its own individual portrait. I looked at each specific portion primarily for the shapes within that I needed to exaggerate or downplay. Making sure each tiny section makes sense and looks fluid will make the picture as a whole look way better.
You intentionally left the face incomplete. Some people think you’re lazy and couldn’t finish, others think it adds more artistic value. What’s your explanation?
I remember first seeing hyper-realistic art and being completely blown away with the level of skill involved, but at the same time thinking, ‘What is the artistic value in merely recreating an image?’ A camera can capture an image. A computer can recreate an image better than I ever could. But art is about the integrity of self-expression and adding a personal touch. Simply reproducing a photo would’ve been boring and pointless. I wanted to create a conversation piece that was open to the viewer’s interpretation.
What’s next?
To be honest, I don’t know. Galleries are pretty much impossible to get in if you only have one piece. As far as my next piece, I want to work with incorporating more vibrant colors, mainly because I feel that they give the piece more character and emotion.
* Be sure to check out more of Ryan’s work on Instagram: @ryan_nephew
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