Michael Zavros - Blank faces

I discovered the work of Michael Zavros when researching other artists who blank out the faces of people within their work. 

I have a found a quote from the artist himself explaining the reason for him doing this.

'My recent drawings of models with their ideal features erased manipulates the notion of 'surface' beauty - the currency of the model having been removed. But surface is important not just as a metaphor but literally in terms of the treatment of the drawing material on paper. The portrait having been lovingly rendered in charcoal is then aggressively removed but the features can't quite be erased - the charcoal stains the paper permanently. It is always important to me that what I am painting or drawing is reflected in how I am creating it; technique and subject somehow mirror each other'  Michael Zavros

I am interested in how the artist relates the subject matter directly to the technique of the way in which he produces it. I think in terms of the way in which I am painting over people's faces to eradicate identity, the work of Zavros fits rather well. He talks about the 'surface of beauty' which encourages me to think about the modern world and how beauty is generally thought to be in how somebody looks on the surface as opposed to their personality. 

It is also interesting to think about the 'currency of the model being removed' which says to me that they earn their money through how their face looks and so by eradicating their features their money value is also removed. I think this is actually quite a negative way to look at the situation as it makes the viewer think that if these people weren't attractive they would have no other worth and that looks are more important than who people actually are inside. 

Nevertheless, Michael Zavros thinks these sort of fashion images to be ' transporting, very creative, and highly artful' despite also claiming that he is not actually that interested in fashion.

By looking at this artist it has encouraged me to think more about my reasoning for painting over the faces of people, although, in some pieces it is not only the face that has been painted over. For my work, the eradication of areas of the photographs addresses more of an idea of what is the focal point in the picture and even the identity of the photograph as a whole in comparison to the identity of the people within.