Kind of an FAQ...

Most common question I get is 'Who are those people in your paintings?'. I generally give a quick answer 'they aren't anyone, I make them up'. That is both true and not true. N' so I better give a more fleshed out answer for the folks who want to know.

Yes, most of the people in my work do not exist. I don't use models, the type of technique I've been developing requires I know & understand anatomy, and I will pull references when I need to... but I don't have people pose for me. There are times when I do paint from life, and those paintings are titled with the individuals name.

So where does it come from? The ideas for my paintings come from stories (my own or inspired by others I've met), mythology, and some deep whatever that regurgitates out of me from time to time (generally emotional or a reaction to something I've seen or read, but not always). Probably the best way to explain how this works is to go into detail about one of the paintings I've done, and the best one I think to tell that story is Callisto.

This was originally inspired by the painting by Francois Boucher "Jupiter In the Guise of Diana and the Nymph Callisto," (1759). For those unfamiliar with the story, click here. Basically Zeus seduces her in the guise of the Goddess she served & loved (Artemis/Diana), who gets pissed off & blames her for what happened and casts her away. Depending on which story you read, either Diana turns Callisto into a bear, or Zeus does to hide what he did from his wife. At some point she gives birth to a son, & it's either he who later tries to kill her when Callisto attacks him out of revenge for what was done to her, or Diana does. Zeus in order to avert tragedy puts Callisto and her son in the sky as Ursa Major and Minor, AKA the big and little dipper.

So, in my painting we have Callisto (note she's in somewhat the same position as Ursa Major) laying on a blanket (the blue and white of the blanket are supposed to be reminiscent of Boucher's painting). Because I painted her from above, she looks suspended. The peach she's holding is a reference to a romantic devotion to the divine feminine, and I used 'hot' colors to indicate arousal. I got inspired to create the pattern around her from looking at photographs of trees in sunlight and the shadows they form on the ground. She's curvy, because I wanted to paint a curvy nude, and I also wanted to include pubic hair because I don't see female pubic hair in art very often. So here, Callisto is reclaiming her own sexuality apart from anyone or anything else, by being her own raw naked self.

Or that's the general idea anyway. Part of this came from many conversations I've had with women growing up with negative self images of themselves (a common conversation brought up over and over again). I've learned a while back that people identify with the images they see, often they identify with the subject either as part something they are, or as a part of the story or experience of someone they may know or identify with. A big part of what influences me are icons, especially medieval icons, frescoes, & tapestries. They capture a whole idea, story, emotional play in a single image. This relates directly to how I think and approach image making. My work is a snapshot of part of a story that you'll never be told... they relate to archetypes, in a way. I get asked, 'Are these self portraits?'. On the surface no, but in a way they are perhaps indirectly. Bus Stop Waiting relates to a trip I took when I was 19, and was painted at a period in my life where I was quasi-homeless. The girl isn't supposed to be me, but the emotions are. Girl in Tall Grass is about a memory of fields in Ohio I wandered through when I was young. The red bird indicates change (menstruation, growing up), and there's more symbolism, but I don't want to go too much into it. I really would rather the viewer come up with their own symbolism in relation to the painting. While I may have abstract reasons (be they personal or historical) into why I created the image, I know full well the viewer may not have the same knowledge or experience, and that's ok. It's not required.

The book I'm working on is a slight departure from the figurative work I've done in the past, sorta. I can't help but be literal, it's also in how I think and relate. But yeah, things are coming along, and I'll write more about that later.

So for this round, here's something I've been listening to lately. Song: Alive! Band: Omina