Brienna McLaughlin Pruce

http://brienna.net

Confinement

acrylic on canvas, 47" x 47"

2007

A crowntail displays its fins to fight a dead fish.

acrylic on canvas, 47" x 47"

2007

Their colors live outside their contained existence

acrylic on canvas, 35" x 47"

2007

Male and female betta

oil on canvas, 48" x 66"

2006

Betta fish are considered disposable items that can be checked out, returned (dead), and discarded much like cheap plastic toys.

Water dyed blue

oil on canvas, 47" x 47"

2006

Stacked to the ceiling

oil on canvas, 95" x 54"

2006

Fish are foreign, and we have difficulty feeling sorry for something other than ourselves.

oil on canvas, 54" x 190"

2007

Magnifying bettas to human scale and portraying their environment from a fish eye perspective provokes the question: what if that dying fish were me?

The beginning and the end

mixed media, 10" x 10"

2007

Inside their world

mixed media, 10" x 10"

2007

Bettas stored in picnic cups

mixed media, 10" x 10"

2007

Prices on a blue tank

mixed media, 10" x 30"

2007

Isolated amidst many

mixed media, 10" x 10"

2007

The betta fish signify the trapped and suffering animals of the world.

Little living paintings

mixed media, 10" x 10"

2007

One empty tank

mixed media, 10" x 10"

2007

Betta Tanks I

mixed media, 10" x 30"

2007

Betta Tanks II

mixed media, 10" x 30"

2007

Fish in glass bowls

mixed media, 10" x 10"

2007

Fish in plastic cups

mixed media, 10" x 10"

2007

The betta is the overlooked, forgotten animal, merely appreciated for superficial aesthetic qualities; it represents all of our shallowness and pain.

Fish Eye VI

mixed media, 10" x 10"

2006

Fish Eye VIII

mixed media, 6" x 6"

2006

Fish Eye X

mixed media, 10" x 10"

2007

Their existence is a plastic cup with barely enough water to survive.

Fish Eye XII

mixed media, 10" x 10"

2007

Fish Eye XIII

mixed media, 10" x 10"

2007

Fish Eye XIV

mixed media, 10" x 10"

2007

Through my paintings, I hope to reinforce our connection to other living beings and remind us of the fragility of life.

The manager said, “Next time, call before visiting so I can move the betta fish into tanks because people often get upset by images of fish in cups.”

mixed media, 10" x 10"

2007

A child found a fish wedged between the tank dividers, dying.

mixed media, 10" x 10"

2007

Someone asked, “Which one do you want to save?”

mixed media, 10" x 10"

2007

Our own living and working environments are not much better with apartments stacked sky-high and claustrophobic cubicles providing barely enough room to move.

acrylic on canvas, 95" x 54"

2007

It is my hope that we recognize ourselves as the betta, and our world as a plastic cup.