I hunkered down this weekend and directed most of my energy towards capturing the elusive Olive Oatman, once and for all.
Yesterday, I had a notion to approach her portrait by emulating two different, but similar, compositions. One would be a version of the famous Kaloma poster (erroneously ID as Josephine Sarah Marcus, by a notorious faker), and the other is a famous painting by the artist Edvard Munch.
Daily Whip Outs: "Still Seeking Olive"
Obviously a couple of images in this photo pile are not meant to be Olive, but you get the drift of where I'm going. Oh, and here is the inspiration for the sketch, at bottom, center:
Edvard Munch: "Madonna"
Munch, a fellow Norwegian, painted this image numerous times in the 1890s. The above version is actually a color litho with sperm squiggling up three sides of the frame and a "foetus-like pendant" in the lower left corner. In 2010, a hand-colored print of "Madonna" sold for 1.25 million pounds, the most expensive print ever sold. For a PRINT! Critics have described it as "glorifying decadent love," or a "monstrous mother in the throes of ecstacy and pain." Either way, it is striking. And worthy of emulating.
As I sketch, as you can see, I often make notes to myself for other tasks I need to do:
Daily Whip Outs: "Emulating Josie and Munch"
Daily Whip Out: "Olive On The Mojave"
Weston Allen turned four yesterday and had fun at the park but fell off the monkey bars and broke his arm. In related notes, above, I was successful in delivering the big painting to Jenny Petarek Smith, but I still need to thank Sylvia Durando for the hat carrier she gifted me when I was in Bishop.
"If I'd have known when I was 30 that things would be like this at 70, I wouldn't have been so worried. Not that I was worried, but you get insecure and go, 'Ah, I wonder what I'm gonna do when I'm 60. What if I have to go back to work or something?' Piece of cake, man. I can sing as good and play guitar as good as ever. I'm functional. I have sex as much as I ever did."
—Sammy Hagar, in Rolling Stone on what it's like to be 70-years-old
I have read that Olive went on to become a prominate part of San Franciso's upper class. Is that true?
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ReplyDeleteMy previous comment was made of misunderstanding what you wrote about the KALOMA Poster. Deleting it is part of my apology.. however, rest assured that the poster's veiled nude female Subject is, indeed Josie Marcus, -& was taken in 1880, as she'd told the author -& others. The 1914 Copyright was on the exotic title "KALOMA." Obviously, a Licensing Deal was made between the poster's Publisher, Josie -& Fly Studio for 1'st Run Royalties. The Poster was a Moral Booster for our Doughboys in W W 1.
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