Snow White’s Defense 2021

Michael Cheval made this oil painting, Snow White’s Defense, imagining a scene from a fairy tale. Look at the way he has built this space, layering figures and faces into a surreal backdrop. What I love is the mirroring, not just the literal mirror at the bottom of the painting but the mirroring of Snow White’s dress with the dress-like forms of the soldiers. The artist has created an eerie sense of movement, of things emerging and receding. I can almost feel Cheval’s hand, the brushstrokes building up the texture and layering the details. Did he start with the background or the figure? It reminds me that we’re all in conversation with one another as artists. I'm always trying to capture that same sense of motion and ambiguity in my own paintings. It’s like we’re all part of this big, ongoing experiment. This painting is like a dream—elusive, open to interpretation, and full of possibilities.