MOVIE STAR ZOMBIE LOVE AFFAIRE
Its funny how an innocent conversation can provide the inspiration for the creation of a series of paintings. (Or anything for that matter, but in this case it’s a series of paintings.) One day local photographer Charlotte “Charlie” Ohnsten remarked that she had seen a Vincent Price movie and she thought he was sexy. Jokingly I remarked “Yeah, but he’s dead.” To which she replied “...Well, he’s still hot!” Teasing her, I said “...oooh, movie star zombie love affaire, hey?”
What started as a joke and “something fun to paint” turned into an exploration of the metaphysics of attraction. How is it that beauty can transcend mortality? Why is it that the idea of “the living dead” holds such popular appeal? Is this the American melting-pot version of ancestor worship? Zombie movies are a perennial staple of the horror genre. Movie stars are already zombies of a sort, their faces lighting up our video screens 24/7 nowadays. And despite the vintage of any particular film, the stars are always attractive and desirable.
Originally I had intended to do the paintings on black velvet, but this was impractical for a number of reasons. So I opted for recycling an old sheet of plywood that had blown over the fence into my yard, a gift of the desert winds. I like the texture it adds to the work. The knots and voids in the surface accidentally find their way into the design in a most interesting fashion adding to the “zombie” effect. The paintings themselves show an evolution of style, media, and technique. Like any project, you start with an idea of what you think the end result will be. But unexpected challenges and interesting side effects develop that will lead you in new directions. Put another way, sometimes the painting says its time to stop, even if its not the painting you had in mind at the beginning. I guess the real art is in being open to what the work is doing in spite of its original idea.
What started as a joke and “something fun to paint” turned into an exploration of the metaphysics of attraction. How is it that beauty can transcend mortality? Why is it that the idea of “the living dead” holds such popular appeal? Is this the American melting-pot version of ancestor worship? Zombie movies are a perennial staple of the horror genre. Movie stars are already zombies of a sort, their faces lighting up our video screens 24/7 nowadays. And despite the vintage of any particular film, the stars are always attractive and desirable.
Originally I had intended to do the paintings on black velvet, but this was impractical for a number of reasons. So I opted for recycling an old sheet of plywood that had blown over the fence into my yard, a gift of the desert winds. I like the texture it adds to the work. The knots and voids in the surface accidentally find their way into the design in a most interesting fashion adding to the “zombie” effect. The paintings themselves show an evolution of style, media, and technique. Like any project, you start with an idea of what you think the end result will be. But unexpected challenges and interesting side effects develop that will lead you in new directions. Put another way, sometimes the painting says its time to stop, even if its not the painting you had in mind at the beginning. I guess the real art is in being open to what the work is doing in spite of its original idea.