A Stretch

to the point of absurditiy?  Perhaps, but purely in visual terms, the resemblance really is striking.

I have absolutely no idea what that thing stuck to the railing is:

All I know is that the moment I laid eyes on it I was instantly reminded of this display I saw several years ago on a visit to an establishment called The Love Museum in Hongdae (which sadly doesn't exist any more),

which was a hilariously kitschy piece of decoration(?) from China based on this beautiful, though somewhat scandalous (for its time), painting by Ingres:

A Forgotten Gem

Saturday, June 10, 2017 in downtown Los Angeles.  I was driving home from Echo Park in the artsy Silverlake district after a leisurely stroll and photo session around the lake.  I was almost home when I was greeted by the sight of these nude bicycle riders down what I had long come to think of as the "back street" (although it was hardly that, since the road cut through the heart of downtown).  It may have been some kind of charity event, I don't really know, but anyway it was unusual enough that I pulled over and took a few precious shots for posterity before they passed out of sight.  The guy in the detail shot noticed me grinning and flashed a "V for victory" sign.  I held out a "thumbs up" in return.  Was all this against some misdemeanor regulation?  Of course not -- there was even a cop directing traffic to make sure the riders were safe.  I just wished there had been more women riders.

Not A Portrait

I once worked on a life-size nude female figure.  It was to be an honest -- if somewhat idealized -- portrait of someone I was in a relationship with.  As such, it was going to include certain features of her body that only her doctor and her husband would know about.  Needless to say, when she learned of my intention she made me change them.  We broke it off not long afterward, and the painting was left unfinished.  I made this paper doll as a kind of tribute, to both her and the failed relationship (which I guess was a non-starter anyway), hence the skull, and the black patch and her hands hiding her identity.

Related post:  Double Portrait, Vanitas

The Temptation Of Eve

For a guy who isn't Christian, I sure like me some Christian imagery.  This is another tiny panel (5 inches high and 3.75 inches across) that I started a long time ago, then got distracted by other things and never followed up on.

I once was in a relationship with someone else's wife (actually it was the first of two such affairs in my life, where I was "the other man", but anyway).  She was unhappy in her marriage.  She was bored and frustrated with her strait-laced, hidebound husband and feeling trapped.  I guess she found my somewhat unconventional style fresh and interesting, a kind of escape valve from her stifling situation.  As for me, I found her beautiful and sexy, and maybe I was just a little flattered that someone so attractive would be attracted to me as well.

And it's true what they say about creative artists and their muses.  Her beauty has since informed all my subsequent imagery of female nude figures, be they Eves, Venuses, or just anonymous ideals.

[An amusing side note:  Some time after we started our relationship, I gave her a handmade card with the image of myself as the Serpent, offering the Fruit of Knowledge to her (the Serpent finally had arms!).  She loved it, and was particularly tickled by the fact that I had made a point of coloring us with slightly different complexions (she was Caucasian)^.  She gave it to a friend to keep though, as she was afraid of her hubby finding it.

Related post:  And Some More... Old Art

Some Really Old Art

This figure was planned to be one of two panels flanking a larger central panel.  I started the project (and never even got close to finishing it) during a period when I was especially enamored of the painters of 15th and 16th century northern Europe (I still am, but since then I have somewhat broadened my horizons to include others).

While I am a great admirer of the heroic figures painted by Michelangelo and other Italian artists of the Renaissance, I have always also been strongly drawn to the delicate figures of the Northern Renaissance painters.  Maybe it's because in their visualizations of the human body the Northerners didn't seem to niggle over brick-by-brick anatomy so much -- their idea of anatomy in a sense was the polar opposite of the Italian tradition;  it was of the perfection of thought made visible, not an idealization of the flesh from the ground up to meet the spirit.  With this I think one of my favorites, William Blake, would have agreed;  he also admired Michelangelo's (or Michael Angelo's, as he would have spelled the name) figures, but he naturally preferred the supra-physical linearity of Gothic figures, and combined them in a personal synthesis of the thick and heroic, with and the sinuous and graceful.


Related posts:  Eve #1;  Eve #2

A Nude Sequel

The skies around the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels are turning out to be quite productive in interesting imagery, and not random images, either.  Last year I posted a photo taken near the church, of a cloud that hauntingly recalled a standing female figure in a full-length cloak (image).  Then just the other day, in more or less the same area I saw this wonderful display:

A standing nude female figure this time -- possibly headless, in the best Classical tradition.  In fact, one might consider the figure to be a statue and the shell-looking cloud to the right as the mold the figure was cast in (granted, a bronze statue is not very likely to be found headless, but it's not impossible possible^) -- or perhaps it's a dress trailing a magnificent train, which the figure has just cast off.  It may even be that this is the very same cloud from last year (see the link above --  and click here to see another case of a cloud found much later), and she has just doffed her cloak, revealing herself to mortal eyes in all her glory.  Check out this detail.

A great follow-up indeed.  This is reminding me of the Titian painting known as 'Sacred and Profane Love'

I believe it's the nude figure that represents Sacred Love;  Profane Love is represented by the richly-dressed, worldly-looking lady.  However, in the case of my cloud figures I don't see anything profane about either of them.  They both are lovely and mysterious to me.

More Old Art

THE BIRTH OF VENUS

Among the comments I probably overheard at the opening of this group show:

#1. "Men tend to eroticize the anima"

#2, "Are those organs?"

#3. "Wonder if his girlfriend posed for it (giggle)"

#4. "It's too busy; too many things going on"

#5. "Ha ha, I love it"

#6. "Why did he paint her on book pages?"


Responses:

#1. Yes, we do.

#2. Yes, they are.

#3. Yes and no;  someone I was in a relationship with did serve as the model, but I had to change some things because she didn't want to be recognized by her husband.

#4. Yes, it's true.

#5. Yes, it's lovely.

#6. So that it would look intellectual instead of pornographic.

And Some More... Old Art

'THE TEMPTATION OF EVE'

Painted on a mask about 3.5 inches in height, this is the closest I've come to painting a miniature.

Edit: It occurs to me that at this pre-Fall stage the Serpent still had limbs... Oh, well.

Eve

REASON AND INSTINCT, LOFTY AND BASE

It's been seven months since I moved into this loft, and I'm still unpacking. I just came across this photo of a small panel of 'Eve' I worked on years ago. It was never quite finished (the common fate of many of my projects), but I actually like it this way. I wish I knew where the actual painting is.

EDIT:  Found it.