Cencorship and Public Art

I viewed an oil painting by Anne Teigen, an artist featured at Opus6ix gallery. I was drawn to the use of color in her paintings, as well as the simple, yet complicated nature depicted in her work. I focused on a painting she calls "thoughtful", which captures a older women holding a glass of white wine in one hand, and resting the weight of her mouth and chin in her other hand. She is sitting alone, with her wine and a plate with four olives scatter across it. The women is very bland looking aside from her bright orange hair pulled in a high bun and her green, yellow, and blue shawl she is wearing. The expression on the women's face is what draws in the viewer. She appears very pensive, starring down past her hand. You realize that she is not looking at anything, but fixating her eyes steadily so she can process the thoughts in her mind. It is easy to assume that she is unhappy or sad, because naturally a person void of expression appears to be so. "Thoughtful" was among many of Teigen's paintings capturing people sitting alone.
After researching Anne Teigen I discovered that her inspiration for her paintings comes from her recent trip to Spain, in which she visited several tapas bars. There she observed the diners, some of them dining alone. More so than anything she realized the personal act of eating. The relationship a person has with their plate, glass, fork, etc. is entirely their own. Though her painting depicts a singe person, it is not to say that that person is necessarily alone, because she only offers that one perspective of the table where the individual sits. "Thoughtful" is showing the solitary act of eating, also capturing the element of 'deep thinking', which could reflect how personal she[Teigen] thinks eating and nourishing ourselves to be; we are one with ourselves, our food, and our thoughts. She mentioned too that she often situates tables and chairs around her paintings to allow the viewers an opportunity to "join the characters at their tables".