Kim

Oh Kim. I love this piece. This is probably within my top five of all the stuff I've found over the years. Made so much better by the fact that I have no idea who this is, but she catches me all the time when I see her. I had grown up with the impression in my head that, although I've never been in the same room as it, the Mona Lisa's eyes will follow you around a room. I felt like that "factoid" was attached to all talk of the piece of art. I don't think, up to an age, I'd ever heard the Mona Lisa discussed without also being told that her eyes will follow you in a room and that it's an unsettling experience. I googled this while typing out this copy and guess what, it was debunked in 2019. 

While the Mona Lisa Effect may not apply to the actual Mona Lisa, I feel like it certainly does with Kim, under the right lighting. I've often had this art up in the second bedroom we use as a "studio" or working space in our apartment, only to feel after the sun has stopped shining through the window for the day, the eyes on Kim are tracking me as I move about the room. Granted, this is quite a small room. "Moving about the room" usually is standing up and walking three feet across to grab something and then returning, so I suppose technically you could probably track someone if you're set back enough without really moving muscles in your face, but, I still get the attached uneasiness that comes with the phenomenon, just at scale. 

Kim is framed with white textured wood, a border of gold divides it from the also-monochromatic charcoal pencil drawing of a young woman wearing a collared shirt layered with a V-neck sweater. The back bears only a signature, the only piece of information I had to go by on the mystery of this item, KIM.