A Rich Fantasy Life

In 1995, I embarked on a journey of personal discovery and some would say, simply, ego trip, by depicting myself as famous and infamous women from throughout history and mythology. Each piece I made had an accompanying story, which told of the person I was depicting and explained a bit about the techniques I used in making the work. All of this was extremely well received by my buying public and I have continued this practice even today.

In the process of these journeys, I have managed to recreate myself over and over again. . .sometimes with green hair, sometimes with facial tattoos, sometimes just plain naked, naughty and downright thin! But NEVER with a double chin! As I am fond of saying, it IS my fantasy! The other part of this work that fascinates me is the research into my characters and total creation of a fantasy from start to finish.

For example, the piece 'Nakshedil Sultana' is the story of a young French woman, Aimee de Rivery, who was captured in Martinique and sold into a harem. She became wife to the sultan, advisor of foreign affairs, and mother of the next sultan. She lived a long, luxurious and very interesting life. The jars in the background of this picture were loosely borrowed from a plate in an old copy of the Rubyiat of Omar Khayyam I have. My turban is a compilation of several styles of turban I found in books. The facial tattoo was a little bit harder to find. I had seen a fleeting picture of a person on the Discovery Channel with these tattoos, and later found a similar person on a bag from The Body Shop. Finally, National Geographic gave me the identification of these people. . .they are the Wodaabe people from Niger, Africa. . . and the men paint themselves and dress up to woo the females of the tribe. This piece was one of the first to introduce me to the wonders of the new painting enamels, which I have used for details and shadowing in almost all of my work since.

In several Germanic myths, 'Frau Hölle' was a former goddess who, with her sister, was turned into a witch. But she was a good witch and it was said that when she shook her comforter, the feathers turned into snow. In this piece, I had the joy of painting LOTS of fine details on her dirndl, on her comforter, and the snow itself is actually Witeout (or Liquid Paper) fired into the surface of the enamel. Thank you, Bill Helwig, for showing me that trick! I also used that trick to create tiny stars in the background of another work, 'Cassiopeia'.

In 'Eos', a very recent work, I have screened dry enamel through a silkscreen in the background, used the enamel paints to shade the moon, and employed good old fashioned layering techniques to achieve the drapery effect. The image from this piece is from a painting of the 19th Century. She sits on a chair by Charles Rene Macintosh, and she dreams at leisure, like l wish l could.

These ladies and a host of others were displayed. together from March through May 2003 at the Florida International Museum in St. Petersburg, FL, in homage to women. They will be reunited with even more of their friends at the Dunedin Fine Arts Center, Dunedin, FL, from November 1 through December 24, 2003. For information on the show, call (727) 418-8887.

By Mary Klein [Volume 22, Number 5, December, 2003]

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