Gods and Foolish Grandeur

Life And The Arts...From A Retrograde Perspective

Sunday, March 30, 2025

The king's pretty box - the "coffret des pierreries" of Louis XIV

Jewel box of Louis XIV - previously known as "d'Anne d'Autriche” - created by the goldsmiths Jakob Blanck and Jean Pitan, 167...

Sunday, March 23, 2025

Chevy show-off - one car, one young man, three vintage photographs, circa 1960s

Sunday, March 16, 2025

JC on the cover - Joan Crawford and the movie magazine (plus one)

* And Miss Crawford looking very chic on the March 12, 1940 cover of Look . The aquamarine and diamond jewels were her own.

Sunday, March 9, 2025

Dark boys - three tenebrous portraits

Portrait de jeune homme à col ouvert , portrait of Eugène Delacroix, by Théodore Géricault, circa 1816-17. * Ragazzo con gli orecchini , ...

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About Me

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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