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Sci-Fi Paintings Show How Strange Being a Tween Girl Is

Artist Lori Nelson paints today's tweens into a world of yetis and folklore-inspired ghouls.
WEATHER APP, Oil on panel, resin finish, 20 x 20 inches. Images Courtesy the Corey Helford Gallery.

Inspired by sci-fi, mythology, and traditional folklore, a new series of oil-on-panel paintings reflect on the experiences of the modern tween girl. Too old to be a child yet too young to be a teenager, she occupies a somewhat awkward middle ground in perception; a confusing yet exciting area in life that Brooklyn-based artist Lori Nelson imagines as a fantastical parallel universe filled with ghouls and magic.

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But the nearly-human creatures of Cryptotweens Are Like, on view at Corey Helford Gallery from May 28 - July 2, aren’t so much scary as they are introspective. Nelson captures real life emotions and recognizable milestones of tweenhood, be they sneaking out at night or finding ways to entertain yourself on the playground. They're reminiscent of Sally Nixon's illustrations of what women do when no one's watching, but with a distinctly fantastical air.

THERE, THERE, Oil on panel, resin finish, 24 x 24 inches.

Born in Utah to a Mormon family, Nelson became fascinated by the innocent and romantic representations of saints in traditional theological art. Her illustrations appear within the stylized aesthetic framework of a story book, eliciting a somber sense of nostalgia. “I am drawn to adolescents as subjects because, for a brief time, they necessarily inhabit a land that is neither childhood nor adulthood, but rather a thorny connective forest that all must stumble through," says Nelson. "Forests, we all know, though dangerous and spooky, can also be quite magical.”

Nelson situates her subjects in that disconcerting area of pre-pubescence, when youthful invulnerability gives way to the self-conscious apprehension of young adult fatalism. Check out images from the show, below:

WITH YOUR FEET ON THE AIR AND YOUR HEAD ON THE GROUND, Oil on panel, resin finish, 24 x 30 inches.

SQUIRRELCRAFT, Oil on panel, resin finish, 30 x 40 inches.

SEASON OF THE SUPERMOON, Oil on panel, resin finish, 42 x 48 inches.

If you’re in Los Angeles, you can check out Cryptotweens Are Like at the Corey Helford Gallery from May 28th - July 2, 2016. See more work by Lori Nelson on her website, here.

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