Gods and Foolish Grandeur

Life And The Arts...From A Retrograde Perspective

Friday, September 4, 2020

Marlene Dietrich, by William Walling ("supervised" by Josef von Sternberg), 1933.

Elsa Lanchester, publicity for "The Bride of Frankenstein", 1935.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr., by George Hurrell, 1933.

Peter Lorre, publicity for "Secret Agent", 1936.

Stephilius: Stephen O’Donnell is a mid-career fine artist, writer, and singer/performer. His paintings are widely collected, both in this country and abroad. Entirely self-taught, he is best known for his self-portraits, paintings which typically employ gender ambiguity and a lot of droll humor. His work most often exemplifies what is known as a portrait historié, in which a recognizable subject is portrayed in period costume or mythological guise, to dramatic or comic effect. He is also known for his small paintings of animals. His work – both literary and visual – has appeared in the literary magazines/journals Nailed, Menacing Hedge, Buckmxn Journal, and Gertrude. He is married to writer and graphic designer Gigi Little, with whom he sometimes performs. Their book, The Untold Gaze – a collection of Stephen’s paintings paired with short fiction by 33 authors – was published in October of 2018. They live in Portland, Oregon with their dog Nicholas.

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