"Movie Star Zombie Love Affaire" ARTIST RECEPTION: MAY 1, 6 - 10pm
Lupe Velez
Gloria Swanson
Vincent Price
Rudolph Valentino
David Greene "Movie Star Zombie Love Affaire" plywood paintings ARTIST opening: MAY 1, 6 - 10pm saturday's LIVE performances ... the sibleys the curly show "cinematic blues" by performance artist: tania hammidi
Exhibits until June 5, 2010
Movie Star Zombie Love Affaire: Glamorous portraits of past movie stars as zombies painted on desert aged plywood using recycled paints.
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!" Teasingly 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.
Selected Exhibitions October 2009 OSAT Group Show Yucca Valley, Ca October 2008 OSAT Group Show Roadside Attraction, 29 Palms ,Ca October 2007 OSAT Group Show Roadside Attraction, 29 Palms ,Ca September 2007 Desert Duos True World Gallery, Joshua Tree, Ca August 2007 Group Show Fi-Lox-See Gallery, 29 Palms,Ca August 2003 Ohio State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition August 2002 Ohio State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition Ohio Arts Council Purchase Award August 2001 Ohio State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition November 2000 Still Life as Metaphor, Keny Galleries, Columbus,Oh December 1999 Tromp L'Oeil group exhibition, Mansfield Art Center, Mansfield, Oh Curated by H. Daniel Butts, Director March 1999 Keny Galleries Group Show August 1999 Ohio State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition Juried by PaulJ. Smith, Director Emeritus, The American Craft Museum August 1998 The Ohio Art League Spring Exhibition, Columbus Museum of Art Juried By Klaus Kertess, Whitney Museum of American Art Keny Galleries Purchase Award
29 Palms Creative Center & Gallery 6847 Adobe Road 29 Palms, California 92277 Phone: (760) 361-1805
CALL FOR ARTISTS! If you are interested in becoming a featured artist of the month, or exhibiting display case size art (jewelry & small crafts) Please, contact Gretchen for an application.
