Badlands © Sharon Shapiro (2006)

Best Interpretation: “This painting is an anthem, or monument, for feminist determination, with an aside credit to stealth. Standing knee-deep in the stride-slowing water, the figure nevertheless shows a reared-back and undefensive strength and confidence to face whatever approaches (and something is either approaching or being observed in anticipation of having to be dealt with).” […Read all] -Mike T.

The Artist’s Secrets: “I just went and read all of the interpretations and I have to say that this one (#6, below) is such an amazing interpretation—it’s as if he (Mike T?) wrote exactly what I couldn’t say in words so I had to paint it. I love it!

I went to Mt. Rushmore years ago when I drove out west and the landscape and the sky in South Dakota made a big impression on me. I love that area called Badlands—it is such a poetic name for a place. It seemed like anything was possible in all of that vastness. I had been in LA for a show of my work in 2005, and I bought this dress that I saw in the window of a boutique on 3rd Street, right around the corner from where I was staying. I got home and hung the dress up in my room in the window and I woke up one morning and realized I had to paint it. I had the idea that the ‘founding fathers’ should be coming up out of water, or sinking into the water, one or the other—or both. There is a wading pool in a city park about a half mile from my house, and I climbed the fence one day and had my friend take photos of me in the dress in the pool. I wore the mask because a good friend of mine had a dream that week that I painted myself wearing a mask, as I had been doing some self-portraits at that time. I liked the way the black mask contrasted the ‘white mask’ of the men’s faces. Out of all the photos that we took that day of me in the pool in the dress, I liked this one best because of my posture; it’s as if I’m George Washington crossing the Delaware—which I felt was a good metaphor for entering into unknown territory a little less afraid and bit more confident than in the past. I liked that a woman (me) is literally wearing the men at the hem of her skirt, which can mean several different things.” -Sharon Shapiro

Issue Oct 2007 Submit an Interpretation (7) Posts »

Dripping with Desire by Gary Baseman (2007)

Best Interpretation: “What heaven have we here: the weather a forever sundown of roses and honey. And Honey, believe: this sweetness sticks to us, for years or years enough to call it a lifetime already. There is no death this dusk, no ending, no love that doesn’t reply. Just a woman, some creatures, the rose rain, the selves on the ground, the selves in flight. Our days are a children’s book. Our nights divine.” -S. Kartsonis

The Artist’s Secrets: “This is one of the paintings I created for my solo exhibition titled ‘I Melt In Your Presence’ at the Modernism Gallery in San Francisco for March 2007. These paintings included my lil’ nymph girls and their imaginary best friends. In this particular painting there is a someone in a bear costume, and ChouChou. ChouChou is a little creature that takes all your negativity and hate away, by absorbing it, and excreting creamy gooey love out of his belly button.” -Gary Baseman

Issue Aug 2007 Submit an Interpretation (3) Posts »