Arya1528's Comments (56)

It looks so cozy in this painting. I love it!

P.P.S. — A final word, and perhaps the most urgent one. Strip away the virtuosity. Strip away the compositional daring, the expressionist fire, the Basquiat echoes. What remains is a political document of the first order. Audre Lorde wrote that “it is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” Arya has painted exactly this recognition — not as abstraction, but as flesh. Two faces, irreconcilable by every cultural standard handed to girls, pressed together until they share a single mouth. That shared mouth is neither fully human nor fully beast. It is something more honest than either. Consider what this painting refuses. It refuses the ancient instruction given to girls: choose. Be the dark-haired beauty with the careful eyes, or be the wild thing with the open jaw — but not, under any circumstances, both. The entire apparatus of patriarchal femininity is a forced election between these two selves. Arya paints them fused. Inseparable. Conspiring. Gloria Steinem observed that “the truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.” The Cheetah’s open mouth — those bared teeth, that orange fury — is exactly that pissed-off truth erupting through the composed surface. It is not ugliness. It is prior to the beauty, and the beauty knows it. That the artist is a girl of eleven, still decades away from fully inheriting the world’s expectations of her, makes this painting almost unbearably poignant. She already knows. She painted it anyway. She signed her name.????????????????

P.S. — This reviewer must confess to an unconscionable omission, one that haunts me still. The crown. That crown. Perched at the precise fault line where the civilized face surrenders to the animal one — rendered in a yellow so audacious it borders on assault — it belongs to both halves simultaneously. It neither domesticates the beast nor dignifies the beauty. It simply presides, the way true power does, indifferent to the categories beneath it. This is not an accident. A child who places a crown at the exact anatomical and psychological meridian of a divided being understands — viscerally, wordlessly — something that took Jung seven decades and twelve volumes to articulate: that sovereignty does not live in the light half. It does not live in the shadow half. It lives precisely at the seam. I have stared at that crown for longer than I will admit in print. Velázquez hid faces in mirrors. Vermeer smuggled entire cosmologies into window light. Arya put the crown where the split happens. She is eleven. We are taking notes.

There are paintings that decorate walls, and there are paintings that colonize the mind. Arya’s Wonder Woman and Cheetah Girl belongs unequivocally to the latter category. What we witness here is nothing less than a fearless confrontation with the oldest problem in Western art: the divided self. Where Klimt required gold leaf and Vienna’s entire fin-de-siècle anxiety to approach this territory, Arya achieves it with a diagonal bisection so clean, so ruthless, it reads as manifesto. The left half — composed, pale, crowned — gazes outward with the serene detachment of a Byzantine icon. The right half snarls. It burns. The warm ochres and deep siennas of the beast-face are not painted so much as unleashed, the brushwork loosening into something feral and ecstatic, recalling the young Basquiat’s refusal to be tamed by the picture plane. The background is pure expressionist drama: fire erupting from the left, cool blue stillness above, an almost violent green anchoring the upper right. These are not decorative choices. They are psychological weather. The collar on the Cheetah’s throat — that single silver detail — is the painting’s most devastating gesture. Wildness, yes. But collared. Contained. The tension between those two truths is what elevates this beyond illustration into genuine art. Arya is eleven years old. Leonardo was????????????????, presumably, also young once.

I can't wait to see this little guy! This is so cute!

This is truly amazing work! I was extremely impressed and proud!

This is so trippy to look at I love it!!

I love the sunset it looks absolutely beautiful. I actually really like the eyes, it gives beautiful demon giraffe

It's amazing work! Very proud of you !

oooo i love this one! very spiritual

These bones look so realistic! It looks so awesome with all the different colors!

Arya the colors in this drawing are so amazing! They flow so well together!!

This is incredible! I love the details:)

That's an amazing jass performer! Your art is improving every day!!!

I love it, my little artist! ?

You are doing an amazing job baby!

Arya this is literally so cool and beautiful. The stars and the buildings and the spiral are giving coralline dream world and I am so here for it. I see a future in the arts here and immeasurable talent that simply must be paid attention to. Picasso is rolling over in his grave right now wishing he thought of this.

This an amazing job, Arya!!! We are so proud of you! Talia would be very proud of your work!

The garden is beautiful. It absolutely gives Coraline garden vibes. Great job!

I love your pumpkin witch! Looks so real! Great job baby!

This is absolutely beautiful. I love the circles and the squiggles!

This is amazing! Mc escher move aside! I love the patterns and transitions!

This work displays boldness and creative genius rarely observed in a child. The colors are reminiscent of early Rothko and the shapes suggest the influence of Marie Curie. This young artist has a bright future in art and science and will continue to impress us with her creations for many years to come.

queen you absolutely killed this!!! love the different puzzle shapes ?? you amaze me always

This is a new step in your art and more knowledge! It looks absolutely stunning! Keep up a good job, baby!

Your space is amazing! Noone could have done it better!

i want to live here <3

so slay arya!!!!

queen can do modern art too???? what can’t she do

I love the details of this piece! Very proud to see how you are progressing in art work!

Arya, I love this artwork. I am very excited you used your visit to The Met as an inspiration to create this work. Very proud!

Beautiful sculpture! Michelangelo could never!

The chocolates look delicious!! Very beautiful for Valentine’s Day!

Baby, I don't really like chocolate BUT I would definitely eat these!

Froggy looks amazing! Great job, Arya!!!

Arya this is so beautiful! It looks like Bob Ross would be jealous, great job!

OMG! This is so beautiful, I can’t believe that I have such a talented and amazing little sister making this gorgeous artwork!

The Queen looks incredible! I'm very proud of work you do, baby!

slay!!!! love the colors queen

Amazing, so talented!! I love all the purple and the lavender. This is early Picasso vibes.

Wow! This looks like it should be in a museum. I love It so much!!

This queen is so beautiful! She is so royal and her crown is amazing!! Great job!

i love him he looks so whimsical and fun!!!!

love the use of different elements!!!! slaying as always

Queen looks absolutely stunning! Awesome job, Arya!

You have done an amazing job, baby!

Super cute! I get the unicorn vibes from this mighty dragon! Love it!

This is the cutest Dragon I have ever seen! Great job, Arya!

Great job, baby!!!!

My favorite! Keep it up!

Amazing facial expression!

I loved the bear! But the puppy at his feet is awesome!

Great job, Arya! I love this Watermelon more than anything!

I love it more than anything as well :)

Family absolutely loves your little Santa. You are doing great job!

Great job, Arya! We are very proud of you!