Living "paintings"

Alexa Meade, 23, is a Washington, DC-based artist who paints on top of her subjects and puts them in real life settings. (No, you can't see the pixels. This is real.) From Meade's artist statement:

The reverse trompe l'oeil series is Alexa Meade's spin on reality. Alexa has invented a painting technique that makes 3 dimensional space look flat, blurring the lines between illusion and reality.

Typically a painting is an artist's interpretation of the subject painted onto another surface. In Alexa's paintings, she creates her artistic interpretation of the subject directly on top of the subject itself. Essentially, her art imitates life - on top of life.

By wrapping her subject in a mask of paint, she skews the way that the core of the subject is perceived.

Alexa Meade (Thanks to Hi-Fructose and all who pointed me to this)

• [lewisfrancis]

  I saw Alexa’s work at the G40 Summit recently and it was stunning — I didn’t realize the subject model was real until he blinked. Great idea and execution.

• [kmoser]

  Portrait of a Self-Portrait”: brilliant!

• [AdrenalineSleep]

  Your link to her name says Alex Meade instead of Alexa Meade.

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    Not any more.

• [Art]

  Medium: “Acrylic on Flesh”

  Most intriguing and very enjoyable to see.

  Great work!

• [Terry]

  Interesting, striking and beautiful. How do you buy one? Legally, I mean.

• [Christovir]

  Great art.

  Anyone else think the first guy looks a bit like an elderly Christopher Walken?

• [Anonymous]

  I graduated college last year with Alexa (she was Alex then, possibly the cause of that confusion AdrenalineSleep). It’s been amazing seeing her blow up all around the net.

  She just had an exhibit in NY, believe she may be off to London or Paris shortly.