the woods

So here is some (relatively) early work, from the spring of 2008. Ah, those were the days--fairy tales and their dark, adult interpretations. I have an annotated Brothers Grimm collection complete with gorgeous full-color illustrations from a variety of artists that helped with the progression of this series. They are all done in oil (no glazing! WTF was I thinking??) on canvas, all 18X24.

The series is called "The Woods," since a primary trope in fairy tales and folk tales involves the main character(s) going into the deep, dark scary woods; it's usually read as a metaphor for growing up and venturing into the world. The title of each painting is a line from a Grimms' tale. Top to bottom: What Big Teeth You Have; Where Are You Going, Dear Bear?; The Frog's Prediction Came True; First an Owl, Then a Raven, and Finally a Dove; and Let's Have a Taste, It's Sure to be Sweet. Their tales, respectively, are Red Riding Hood (which I really shouldn't even have to explain), Rose White & Rose Red, The Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Hansel & Gretel.

These are all portraits of friends. With the exception of What Big Teeth You Have, they were all stolen from Facebook. It's kind of bad, how many personal photographs I steal from loved ones via Facebook (see the two photos in the previous posting). But that's the magic of Facebook, right? And no, I'm not going to go into detail about why I chose the tales for these people.

Stylistically? Um, I think I was still in a sort of horror-movie phase or something. Look at all those intricate patterns! Ever notice that horror movies made during the past decade really went to town on the Victorian wallpaper patterns and sick greens and purples? Note similarity. This was a denser, darker, more ornate time for me, I guess, and I'm kind of glad I'm over it...for the most part.

galatea

I just begun my Galatea painting--by begun I mean it's a series of sketchy lines on canvas that make sense only to me. It owes a bit to both images (bottom two, above and below: Odilon Redon, Gustave Moreau). Stylistically, I suppose it's a bit more similar to Moreau, with the primary focus on the Galatea figure and the dark background. Or, it will be. We can only hope. It's something of a departure from what I've been doing, as well as from the things I've been looking at in terms of reference material. Much more ornate and flowery. But it's also the first painting I've done with such a blatantly classical theme; it somehow, therefore, seems appropriate. Or maybe it just seems that way to me.

And seriously, isn't Redon's cyclops like the cutest thing EVER?

The images preceding the Galateas are the kinds of things I've been liking lately. Kind of a faded memory, old family photograph, memory-blending-with-imagination-type thing. Vast and unknown landscapes of the interior and exterior alike.

Something like that.