The Watcher: A Modern Mythology

LOT 5

ALIEASE SIMMONS The Watcher: A Modern Mythology Digital painting [dimensions in inches] Executed in 2025

PROVENANCE:

• Artist's studio

• Direct from the artist

CONDITION: Excellent. Museum-quality presentation.

This ambitious work demonstrates Simmons' capacity for narrative complexity merging Post-Impressionist visual language with archetypal mythological storytelling to create a contemporary meditation on surveillance, agency, and divine authority.

Simmons presents a young woman crowned with sunflowers, symbol of devotion, but also of being rooted in place, turning always toward the sun. Above her looms a bearded masculine face formed from or emerging through the flowers themselves. Simmons' conceptual framework is sophisticated: the divine is both crown and burden, honor and weight.

The swirling, turbulent background evokes Post-Impressionist expressiveness while the floating books and symbolic objects create dreamscape where knowledge, spirituality, and earthly existence collide. Simmons' artistic choices reveal deep engagement with Symbolist painting (Gustave Moreau's mythological narratives), psychological portraiture (Edvard Munch), and female Surrealists who explored feminine agency under patriarchal authority (Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo).

What makes Simmons' work profound is the woman's expression not fear, not worship, but weary awareness. She knows she's being watched. She knows she's disappointing the divine. Yet she continues to exist in her own space. This psychological subtlety demonstrates artistic sophistication beyond technical facility Simmons has created genuine narrative tension and emotional complexity.

The work required extensive refinement to balance multiple symbolic elements while maintaining compositional clarity. The "divine" figure can be read as patriarchal authority, societal expectations, internalized judgment, or literal divine presence, this interpretive richness reflects Simmons' understanding that the strongest mythological art operates on multiple levels simultaneously. PInquire for availability and acquisition details. Please see "How to Buy"

About the Medium: Created using AI generative tools under Simmons' artistic direction.

• Unframed: 54" × 72" (4.5' × 6')

• Framed: 62" × 80"