Artist Shawn Huckins Hand Paints Early American Portraits With An Internet Twist

Shawn Huckins is a Denver, Colorado-based painter who has brought humor into his work.

Huckins is most known for incorporating modern sayings from the internet onto early-American portraiture by asking the question, “What would George Washington post on Facebook? How would Lewis and Clark communicate their progress westward via Twitter?”

He uses a variety of sayings from Twitter, Facebook, and texting acronyms. Huckins makes his work into a satire of social media while still holding onto the integrity of his hand-painted work. He has noted that even the letters that spell out the internet sayings are also hand-painted meticulously. The texts that he puts on his work are humorous and witty, such as “I’ve waited a long time to be disappointed by someone like u”, “Block me”, and “Twerkin like a boss”.

Huckins’ works are meticulously hand-painted, including the letters. The portraits, landscapes and pastoral scenes are sourced from public domain records and museum collections of classic American paintings.

More: Shawn Huckins, Instagram h/t: visualatelier8