Happy Mardi Gras!

Belushi Bacchus

Oil on canvas, 36"x48", 2013



 

 

Jagger Devil

Acrylic on canvas, 36"x48", 2013

 

 

Happy Mardi Gras!!!



Katherine Hepburn Endures

 

Katherine Hepburn Endures

Epson inkjet print, recently completed

 

 

Katherine Hepburn's beautiful profile and stratostar cheekbones, digitally painted from a publicity portrait.  The background is a checkerboard perspective which references op art.  Using a continuous, mirrored pattern not only gives depth to the picture but also expands outward from the central vanishing point.  The pattern goes in and also expands outward, a trick for the eye, it replicates the movement of breath. 

 

Her celebrity face is transparent, uniting her with the vibrating checkerboard, so that we see her ethereal and eternally breathing.  An everlasting goddess. 

 

Katherine Hepburn made many movies and won four Oscars, a record for most Oscars ever won, that is still intact.  Her mother, a suffragette, raised her to be strong and independent, which imbued her life with unique, independent personality characteristics. She lived to be 93 years old and wrote her own life script until the end.

 

She was in the first film that I ever saw, when I was an impressionable, porous six years old.  The African Queen, with Kate playing a feisty missionary navigating a dangerous African river in a rickety boat, during WWII, with hunky Humphrey Bogart, has stayed with me all my life, humming a theme song in the background of my mind. 

 

 Katherine Hepburn's strength and independence align her with the Greek Goddess Diana. Maybe, she was a human incarnation of the mighty huntress Diana? 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Tube Head, DiVince/Digital

Tube Head

Da Vinci Goes Digital Series

 

This is a skull sprouting old TV vacuum tubes.  The inspirations was a very fine sketch of a skull by Da Vinci.  The background is a redesign of vintage French wall paper.  Hope that you enjoy it!

 

John Lennon, More Popular Than Jesus

 

 

 

John Lennon, More Popular Than Jesus

Pop Religion Series

 

In 1966 John Lennon stated to the press that he was "More popular than Jesus".  The quote ignited a press and public feeding frenzy. 

 

People and groups rapidly chose sides.  Christians castigated him for the sacrilege they perceived. Ministers, screaming from the pulpit latched onto the statement to prove that Rock and Roll was an instrument of the devil.  Religious commentators, foaming at the mouth, declared the event as a sign of the impending apocalypse. Perky teeny boppers,  bristling arrogantly with righteous indignation, made bonfires of their Beatles albums while being filmed for national television.  It was an altogether exciting public event.

 

I think that younger people who were not present at that time may wonder what all the clamor was about.  Back in the day religion did not have a sense of humor.  (I am not sure that there has been much change in this attitude?) Religion was deadly serious.  The consequences of breaking the strict commandments meant serious punishment after death.  For John, a mere human, to infer that he was in the same class as the god Jesus was shocking sacrilege.

 

 

In this picture John Lennon is an avatar of Jesus. 

 

There are similarities between John and Jesus. Similarities in their teachings and in their life.  Both were impossibly idealistic.  Just because ideals are impossible does not preclude believing in them.  We need guiding stars,  simple and sweet works.  Alice Wonderland believes in three impossible things before breakfast. 

 

John sang "Imagine all the people living life in peace". 

 

 Jesus said, "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins."

 

Both Jesus and John were martyred.  Both were murdered in the prime of life. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is what Wikipedia says about the event:

              

History of The Beatles
The Quarrymen In Hamburg At The Cavern Club Decca audition Beatlemania in the United Kingdom North American releases In the United States 1966 More popular than Jesus Studio years In India Break-up Reunions Line-ups Religious beliefs Timeline
v t e

"More popular than Jesus" was a controversial remark made by musician John Lennon of the Beatles in 1966. Lennon said that Christianity was in decline and that the Beatles had become more popular than Jesus Christ. When the quote appeared in the American teen magazine Datebook, angry reactions flared up from Christian communities in August 1966. Lennon had originally made the remark in March 1966 during interviews with Maureen Cleave on the lifestyles of the four individual Beatles. When Lennon's words were first published, in the London Evening Standard in the United Kingdom, they had provoked no public reaction.

When Datebook quoted Lennon's comments five months later, vociferous protests broke out in the southern United States. The Beatles' records were publicly burned, press conferences were cancelled and threats were made.

 

IMAGINE

Lyrics to John Lennon's song

 

Imagine there is no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky

 

Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too

 

Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You, you may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you will join us
And the world will be as one

 

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man

 

Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You, you may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you will join us
And the world will live as one


Hey you! Thanks for stopping by.  I gotta go now.  I think that my brain programming is wearing off.  Gonna go watch the tube now.  My favorite new programs are:  "Fear and Loathing"  and "Moan and Whine."  I also like Lena Dunham's new show,  "Mastering Manipulation".

 

Art Show on a Table,2

 

Art Show on a Table, 2

 

 

 

 Art Show on a Table

 

 

Mary by de Bayou

 

 

 

Merry Christmas!

Art Show on a Table

 

 

 

 

Art Show on a Table