By Kaya Patel ‘22, Arts & Entertainment Staff Writer

From the Mona Lisa to American Gothic, people have been an inspiration for paintings throughout art history. As many artists struggle to master this complicated process of portrait painting, Alexa Meade attempts do the opposite: turn people into 2D paintings. When Alexa Meade came to present to the Visual Arts classes at NA, many students were skeptical and even disturbed by the idea of painting people in 2D form. However, after her brief presentation, it was clear to see why her work has gained immense popularity in the last decade. 

Alexa Meade always enjoyed painting in her youth, but she never considered it to be a viable career path. However, towards the end of college, she felt dissatisfied with her dream of working in the government and decided to return to her childhood passion for art by taking an art course. It was then she discovered her true calling in a single assignment from her teacher. Her teacher asked the class to create a sculpture that felt like a landscape without actually creating a landscape. Bewildered by this assignment, Alexa Meade began to look at nature for inspiration and developed an interest in shadows. She proposed the idea of painting the shadows of trees and other features in nature with black paint, but her teacher disliked her interpretation of the assignment. Although she was forced to create a different piece to submit, she continued to think about this concept of painting the shadows of objects. She delved deeper into this new fascination and eventually began to paint the shadows on people. To her surprise, the results were a 3D model which appeared to be 2D at every angle. After college, she abandoned political science to pursue her art career, which took off rapidly after one of her pieces went viral on Facebook.

Since then, she has collaborated with several other artists as well as celebrities in order to create astonishing works of art. One of her most well known collaborations was with Ariana Grande in her music video “God is a Woman.” Inspired by a similar project that she did with actress Sheila Vand, Alexa Meade painted Ariana Grande and had her enter a pool filled with milk. Since the paint dissolves in water with ease, the colors swirled together to create the several scenes in her music video. 

Not only has she captured her works with photography, but she has also worked with many dancers, actors, and filmmakers to create inspirational short films using her models. One example is her critically acclaimed film entitled “Color of Reality” in which she painted Jon Boogz and Lil Buck, two movement artists, in order to depict gun violence in America. She received the CNN Great Big Story’s “Art as Impact Award” for this piece which was featured at the National Civil Rights Museum’s “Freedom Awards Ceremony” at Lincoln Center. 

In addition to her photography and short films, Alexa Meade has created several art exhibitions where she has allowed people to step into her fixed reality. From painting people in the streets of Tokyo to decorating trees in New York City, Alexa Meade has shared her art with the world and brought light to the infinite possibilities of painting.