
Ladies Night
Ladies Night
36 x 24
2005 / #5
This painting started out just for fun. Could I take famous ladies from the history of art and use them instead of inventing my own characters? As I looked through my texts to find interesting faces, it occurred to me that these women were characters in their own day, recording pretty much what my ladies do. Current clothing, activities, and even jewelry are found in these famous paintings as well as in mine. The first one is the wife in Grant Wood’s famous American Gothic painting. I made her the corn queen. That painting is so overused in advertising and parody that the original intent has been lost into corny adaptations of the work. The waitress is Queen Nefertiti of Egypt and carries the apples of Eve. Below her is a Picasso woman that could perhaps have had too much to drink and well on her way to a bender. Next to her is the last painting study of Michelangelo. The image was unfinished in his sketchbooks and never titled or identified so I made her Eve. She has already had one apple and placed an order for a few more to share with her friends. Lastly is the famous Mona Lisa. Mona has thrown on a few extra pieces of jewelry and gotten a manicure for her big night on the town. Of course, art history still debates whether the Mona Lisa is a male or a female so perhaps she/he is in drag. Maybe that explains the smile.
The background is Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night sky. If one is going to push a theme, might as well go for the whole thing. Some people have asked why the fish bones. Well, Picasso as a cubist broke down elementary structure to its bare bones. Like I said, if pushing a theme…..
36 x 24
2005 / #5
This painting started out just for fun. Could I take famous ladies from the history of art and use them instead of inventing my own characters? As I looked through my texts to find interesting faces, it occurred to me that these women were characters in their own day, recording pretty much what my ladies do. Current clothing, activities, and even jewelry are found in these famous paintings as well as in mine. The first one is the wife in Grant Wood’s famous American Gothic painting. I made her the corn queen. That painting is so overused in advertising and parody that the original intent has been lost into corny adaptations of the work. The waitress is Queen Nefertiti of Egypt and carries the apples of Eve. Below her is a Picasso woman that could perhaps have had too much to drink and well on her way to a bender. Next to her is the last painting study of Michelangelo. The image was unfinished in his sketchbooks and never titled or identified so I made her Eve. She has already had one apple and placed an order for a few more to share with her friends. Lastly is the famous Mona Lisa. Mona has thrown on a few extra pieces of jewelry and gotten a manicure for her big night on the town. Of course, art history still debates whether the Mona Lisa is a male or a female so perhaps she/he is in drag. Maybe that explains the smile.
The background is Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night sky. If one is going to push a theme, might as well go for the whole thing. Some people have asked why the fish bones. Well, Picasso as a cubist broke down elementary structure to its bare bones. Like I said, if pushing a theme…..