‘nosferatu - the opera singer’, finished painting. I’m looking for a verse to go with it now.
‘My heels left dark calligraphy
across the marble floor,
it’s a message for the future that
the world cannot ignore.’
poetry in motion #832 v:2
Artist’s statement:
I combine poetry with painting because I want people to slow down when they’re looking at the painting. The art illuminates the poem, the poem narrates the art. I started with a collage of four images done in the computer, then I projected the image onto the canvas and did the painting. In ‘opera singer’, the purple smoke-like form coming from her mouth represents breath and song. I wrote a book with one poem, called ‘nosferatu - the vampire’s circus’, about a world where everyone was a vampire, like it was normal to be strange. I do like the nightmare-like quality too.
The rough collage done in the computer for the next painting, ‘nosferatu - the opera singer with the octopus skirt’.
I decided to make the octopus skirt bigger.
‘nosferatu - opera singer’, from a photo from the internet. I think I’m going to project this painted image onto a canvas and see what it looks like. If I like it, I’ll do a painting of the painting. I’m going to do a left arm as well. The purple vapor is music and breath. This is at the sketch stage, just to see what it looks like. It’s a problem for me to work with other people’s photographs, but I’ve never been to the opera, and I’m not sure they’d like it if I took photographs anyway. I wouldn’t sell this. It’s just for me. Is it o.k. to publish this on my website? I don’t know.
The beginning of the painting. I love her so far…
A closer look. This is 30x40”, but I think I would have like it much much bigger. Her face is really small, even at this size. It’s pretty much the upper limit of what I can do in my studio. The ceilings are low, and I hit the ceiling if I have a big canvas. The biggest I’ve done is 30x50”. I want to set up a still-life painting at the same time as I’m doing this painting. We’re putting our house on the market later, and I don’t want to scare anyone away. Ha.
I started working on the octopus dress. I like it a lot so far.
A close-up of the skirt. It’s an image of a vampire octopus. Of course.
The curtains take a long time. I’m finished the first layer on the right hand side, now I can start on the left hand side. I also repainted the ballet shoe on her right leg. The original photo had a deep shadow, which made the foot look much bigger. I like it better now.
I finished painting the curtains, layer one done, now I can start layer two. I’ve done her face and upper body so far.
I started the second layer of paint on the skirt. I’ve repainted the left shoe to make it look more like she’s on her toes. I love the colours.
An image I found on Pinterest. I love the colours and shapes, it reminded me of the octopus skirt.
The ‘vampire octopus’ photo from Pinterest.
Layer 2 mostly finished. The drapery needs a bit more work. I like her a lot. I love the orange octopus skirt.