West End Artist Gets ‘Personal’ at Torpedo Factory

West End resident Suzanne Vigil got more than she bargained for when she bought a make-up mirror that magnified her face 25 times.

“That was the good part about it,” she said. “The bad part is it magnified 25 times.”

That mirror served as inspiration for Vigil’s upcoming solo show at the Art League Gallery, located inside the Torpedo Factory in Old Town, entitled "Up Close and Too Personal". The show begins Dec. 5.

Vigil, a Cameron Station resident, used a medium of colored pencil on frosted acetate with multiple layers of colors to create images that, at first glance, appear to be photographs. Some images are compilations of three or four different people and show how imperfections and quirks in our faces can be a thing of beauty.

“People do think they’re photographs, and sometimes I look at it and think, ‘How in the world did I do that?’ Vigil said. “It’s freaky.”

The collection is an “edgy” one, she said. “They’re not pretty. These people all have some major flaws, whether its bad hair or bad skin or a bad tattoo or something, and I have a couple of drag queens in there, which lend themselves even more to this technique.”

“... I find this very, very fascinating, this super photo realistic, up-close version of people. There’s so many flaws, but when you step back, they’re really beautiful.”

Vigil’s work has previously been featured at the Torpedo Factor’s Target Gallery.