All Eyes On: Kathleen Beausoleil

Statement

My work, primarily oil on canvas or panel, explores human social interaction and the territorial behaviors that operate in crowds.  What fascinates me is how people organize.

We like to think of ourselves as having conspicuously unique personalities.  Yet, if we take a closer look, it’s pretty clear that we are deeply social pack animals, biologically programmed for social interaction, and territorial behavior.  There is a sense of liberty in anonymity, a safety in getting lost in the crowd.  

How people behave in public is very telling about the culture they live in.  Observing these groups can help give us a better understanding of our place in our culture.  Even our individual expressions only appear acceptable or distasteful within the context of a larger community of organized and accepted social norms.  I find it important to observe how and with whom people interact.  My personal observation is that people need other people, their own people, to be happy, accepted, and fulfilled.  We also need other people to project our grievances and, at times, rally around a common enemy.  It is a sense of belonging that people seek both in our microcosmic home lives and within our macrocosmic social lives.

Overly Tan Man, 2021
Oil on Panel, 25 x 50 cm (framed)