portfolio
Michal Maayan
Catch Me if I Fall
Acrylic paint and flowers
32" x 20"
Since I was three, I've been obsessed with the human body. I used to sit and read the Atlas of the Human Anatomy when I was in third grade. I think the human body is so complex and beautiful. It's a god's sculpture. I recently started to draw the body a lot. I had a fear about copying a human body, but I did it. I drew a person laying on a net of plants. And I painted the outline of the characters' lingerie and filled it in by stamping a flower-covered in white paint.
The Beauty of Hell
22" x 13"
Acrylic paint and ink
I was reading the book Beloved when I came across the quote, "It made her wonder if hell was a pretty place too' so I drew a figure in a fiery scene and made her beautiful, but not just any beauty. You can see this girl's ribs. I drew her as that terrifying idea of beauty that gives people eating disorders and dysphoria. And I depicted the cruelty of men both to each other and to the world as hieroglyphs on her rib cage.
Mother Earth
Acrylic paint
11" x 14"
On the 4th day of creation, God separated the water and made land. This was the first act of birth, the first time that one thing came from another.
Vengeance
Acrylic paint
8" x 11"
Humans crush nature with their concrete jungles but nature can and will prevail.
Symbiotic
Acrylic paint,
flowers,
white and black ink
9" x 12"
I am an artist but I am also a gardener. I find that there is nothing more satisfying than nature and yet, in the name of human progress, we constantly endanger it. For my AP Studio Art theme, I chose to make pieces showing the relationship between people and plants and what it should ideally be like. This piece shows a symbiotic relationship. Each gets peace from the other.
Prey
Pencil drawing,
white ink,
acrylic paint,
flowers
11" x 16"
In this drawing, I drew a human with sunflowers growing out of their abdomen. The roots of the flower are acting as roots and veins simultaneously.
Natural Beauty
Pencil drawing
homemade paint from flowers
9" x 12" I
am a gardener and I was weeding my garden and kept finding beautiful flowers. I had to pick them in order to protect my plants, but I decided I wouldn't let them go to waste. I went to my room and ground them up and made them into watercolor.
I Pinky Promise to Love You
Pencil drawing
Micrography
9" x 12"
Sometimes love is held together by the smallest of acts and sometimes those small acts aren't so small. I drew two pinkies holding onto each other, making a pinky promise. I made one hand out of the phrase "I love you" written over and over again.
If I Could be a Tree
Ink
11" x 9"
One of my favorite poems ever is Trees by Joyce Kilmer. I truly think that trees are an amazing and beautiful piece of art. Here I made a person as a tree.
Let Go
Ink
9" x 12"
The world feels out of control and I am incapable of doing anything about it. I want to scream at it or fix it but I can't. So here is my scream.
Running Out of Time
Pencil drawing
9" x 12"
This past summer I worked in New York City and every day I would take the train downtown. One day on my way home, the train stopped and stood still for ten minutes. In the moment I was freaking out. I was supposed to get home to meet up with a person and I didn't want to be late. Upon coming home, I drew this, to represent how I felt sitting in that train car.
The Man in the Moon
Chalk pastel
9" x 12"
I seem to find myself constantly on my own. I usually like it that way, but sometimes I feel so lonely. Some nights I stay up late, having nothing to do and no one to talk to. Then l sit up in my bed and look up at the sky and the stars and the moon wishing for a friend. Here I drew my dream. I drew a person walking to the moon, waving at it, greeting it as an old friend, as I wish I could.
Colored pencils
9" by 11"
It's easier to sometimes be your true self by crawling into the back corners of your mind and let someone else take control.