This one is far from finished yet, but it's on it's way.
If you recall, I'd made a pig's protrusion of it by trying to fake it using old photo's as reference instead of basing it on a real person.
Long story short:
Quick trip to a Burlesque show in town, friendly fabulous dancers, a studio session involving feathers, glitter, fishnets and a spontaneous symposium on the failure rate of merkin attachment products and I had everything (and more ) that I needed to complete this painting and a whole bunch more.
By now you will have gathered that this whole process is to do with so much more than making pictures.
It's about meeting some pretty amazing people, being witness to their stories and celebrating the magic and brilliance of their take on the world.
All I have to do is link up the themes and colour them in.
This, then, is the story so far of a painting that feels like it would finish itself if I stopped painting it.
Without giving it all away, I wanted to paint something around the idea of the point at which we choose to identify ourselves.
Do we identify ourselves when we are young and beautiful, or when we're rich with experience?
Do we stop the clock at the bit that represents us at our best, and if so, when is that?
Youthful and desirable or old and dribbly, it's all part of the same story.
Maybe it's good to hold onto the evidence of our lives as we go along, so that one day, when some well intentioned teen is tucking the acrylic blanket round our boney knees, we can take out the scrapbook of how fabulous we once were and beat the sanctimonious smirk off their face with it.
Time is a thief that steals your future while you're looking for the keys of the here and now, so make each day a burlesque show in your heart.
Just mind your merkin...
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