State of Grace Commentary

In my high school Anatomy class, a burn victim visited our class to discuss the differences bewteen third, second, and first degree burns as they pertain to damaging the epidermis, dermis, and hypodermis. When she walked into our classroom I could have sworn I let out an audible gasp, I could hardly recognize her as human. Her face was flat with smoothened skin and saggy eyes that seemed to impair her vision. Her hair was mangy and stringy, as if with one tug, I could manage to pull it all out. I couldn't focus on the presentation, and instead, fixated on her body, trying to imagine what horrible incident she must have lived through to have such a "distorted" appearance. When I looked at Doug Aulds oil painting of burn victims, the discomfort I though I had abandoned last year during my writing seminar investigating circus freaks (born and made), reemerged. This time, however, not guilty. Oil paintings are not able to accurately  capture someone's image, in fact, there are usually many distortions. The oil paintings of burn victims are hard to distinguish as being alien because of the artists' choice or because of the subject. It could be either if one did not know who the paintings' subjects were. The sagginess and akwardness of their faces are less jarring in these images and it almost appears as if there is a layer of fog over the subjects' faces, which makes it difficult for the viewer to see the entire subject.