A few weeks back I hung the mask on this wall rather than the one I have been hanging it on in the studio. It was then I saw the Masks sources of inspiration, where else but on my meager inspiration wall. The clown is an image I have held dear since grad school back at EMU in the mid 80's. I did countless portraits of myself as this clown. He is also Wattues Prerrot, another life long theme/subject for me. I see the color inspiration in the flower face cut out and the transparent quality for the tracing paper. I had no clue till I hung the mask up that there was a reason he felt so familiar. I added more color as you can see in the finished mask below, hanging over the Monkey Bowl.
Here is a detail from a small monkey painting. I first painted it in Milk Paint, let it crackle, then used encaustic wax to bring it all together, it is pretty cool. It has a lot of transparency you can't see here, that is extra cool!
The reaching up Monkey is slowing coming to life and he has 3 friends. The gourd monkeys each have a set of removable Micky Mouse ears.
I actually have a few more new Monkeys, but I have been so absorbed with my sweet Bella I haven't caught up on all the art documentation.
It never seems so relevant: Onward Monkeys!
I say it to Bella, I say it to myself, I say it to you, keep your head up and keep moving forward!
Onward Monkeys!
2 comments:
What or who is Wattues Prerrot? I do love your monkeys. Is the color monkey picture a self portrait?
sorry about that, here is a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WatteauPierrot.jpg If you look closely at the inspiration wall there is a tracing of the Watteau painting of Prerrot, who looks a lot like the clown image next to it. I have made self portraits as both, of myself, in the past.
The monkeys are all self portrait in the sense that they are all me, from me. But it would be misleading to think it is an image of me. Your child is not a self portrait of the parent, but of them.
Thanks, hope that helps
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