I hear it in the night 

Curator: Staring back at us, we have Fernanda Suarez's digital portrait, titled "I hear it in the night." Editor: What a disquieting beauty. There's a stillness to her, but with those serpents...it's unnerving and mesmerizing all at once. What are those made of? Curator: That's a great question, and it raises interesting considerations. Though executed digitally, the artist utilizes a painterly style and appears to be exploring themes present in both acrylic and more traditional mediums. In this context, one might also inquire about the contemporary labor behind this image. Consider the hours and technical skill poured into the work that, once complete, may be infinitely reproduced as .jpg files. As to the serpents, in the visible strokes here, I get the feeling Suarez might represent these figures in molten lead, drawing an equivalence between human violence and creation and between labor and the monstrous feminine. Editor: I like that interpretation. It’s compelling to think about that juxtaposition between digital reproduction, infinite accessibility, and, essentially, slow labor to create one original work. What exactly are we seeing in the background? Curator: It seems to be more serpents carved, perhaps etched, into stone. It’s difficult to say exactly given the style. It also brings up interesting questions of ancient technology and artistic process. Maybe the subject is in an abandoned temple or catacomb, evoking ancient mythology...a modern Medusa grappling with her own legacy, if you will. The serpents might be a part of that ancient stone or concrete behind her that she may or may not be drawing power from. Editor: Power or a kind of cage? Because the detail on her—the delicate rendering of the skin tones and the flush on her cheeks—is almost painfully realistic, but the snakes are stylized and flat. She's very much alive while they’re these frozen emblems of her curse, right? Curator: I can appreciate your sentiment. And the freckles are such an intentional addition! They certainly amplify that feeling of realness. Editor: They bring her to life in a way that feels defiant, almost. All of this almost industrial rendering work seems to focus in the area of her cheeks. Is it really digital, if its all just material focus? Curator: So we find ourselves back at the question of how the artist negotiates both material concerns and digital applications and what those gestures actually bring us as viewers and critics. Maybe we’ve circled back to our original thesis! Editor: Precisely! And to continue my own line of thought, her snakes look flat, or perhaps not 'real' because the work asks viewers to focus on her raw, deeply, hyper-realistic humanity. Thanks for this new angle! Curator: My pleasure.