"My creatures are to offer a morality and suggest a code of behavior": A Talk with Peter Opheim

Peter Opheim’s ongoing body of work is a complex amalgamation of portraiture and still-life. For Opheim, it is important that his work have a real world referent, and to this end, he renders tiny clay models that are at once daring and amusing, thought-provoking and boundary-pushing before beginning a painting. The "subjects" are an ever expanding family of grotesquely soulful creatures, then transposes his characters onto canvasses so large as to be life size.

Check out the video below to learn more about what the artist has to say about his art, his imaginations and the lovingly painted creatures.