Strange Days 

Curator: So here we have Sarah Joncas’ painting titled "Strange Days." It appears to be an acrylic painting, fairly contemporary. It strikes me as very evocative of the digital age we find ourselves in. Editor: My first thought is this: she looks absolutely hypnotized by that phone. There's this… sort of disconnected calm about her expression that makes me feel slightly uneasy. Almost like a walking ghost in the machine. Curator: Absolutely. Joncas uses pop-art influences here, contrasting delicate details—butterflies and floral patterns—with harsher symbols: a skull, and what looks like the suggestion of tentacles. It creates a powerful tension. Editor: Those details hovering around her feel like projections—manifestations of what's consuming her attention. Butterflies are a common enough metaphor for fleeting beauty, but then the skull… morbid content, perhaps? Is that a little too obvious? Curator: It's certainly blunt, but effective. This piece reflects how easily darkness and anxiety can seep into our daily lives through the screens we're constantly glued to. There's a social critique lurking. What does this all tell us about societal themes about how imagery and digital representations get funneled through institutions, filtered for a palatable image of reality? Editor: Precisely! And she contrasts the high gloss portrait with that kind of illustrative backdrop of swirling lines, drips, wispy smoke, making me question what we consider reality or fantasy in a heavily mediated world. Does it matter anymore? Is that where she's taken us? Curator: Well put. It leaves us pondering the role of images and image consumption in contemporary culture, doesn't it? Editor: Totally. I might wander off now and reflect upon what horrors lie ahead. Curator: And I'll contemplate the potential butterflies of beauty we'll find on the journey.