The UNTOLD GAZE debut reception and reading at Froelick Gallery - tonight!

This evening my wonderful gallery here in Portland - Froelick Gallery - will be hosting the debut of our long-awaited book, The UNTOLD GAZE. Gigi and I are so grateful for all their support. And we also want to thank all the many, many people who have supported this project all along the way. A special thank you, also, to the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC) for their generous financial contribution. And thank you to art writer Bob Hicks, who wrote a fantastic introduction for the book.

More than anyone or anything, we need to thank the amazing writers who joined us in this folie de l'art. We thank them for their artistry and generosity, and nearly as much for their patience; it's taken four long years to complete this labor of love. (And madness!)

Reading this evening will be Suzy Vitello, Whitney Otto, Sam Roxas-Chua, and Adam Strong.

Our authors:

Stephen Arndt, Liz Asch, Jude Brewer, Matty Byloos, Doug Chase, David Ciminello, Sean Davis, Monica Drake, Colin Farstad, Dian Greenwood, Sara Guest, Robert Hill, Lisa Kaser, Megan Kruse, Kathleen Lane, Margaret Malone, Kevin Meyer, Karen Munro, Whitney Otto, Michael Sage Ricci, Bradley K. Rosen, Sam Roxas-Chua, Stephen Rutledge, Edie Rylander, Liz Scott, Evelyn Sharenov, Tom Spanbauer, Scott Sparling, Laura Stanfill, Adam Strong, Vanessa Veselka, Suzy Vitello, Lidia Yuknavitch

And for anyone who is interested, the book is now available to order through my website... HERE!

Precious unreality on New Year's Eve - details from seven new paintings

As you'll note from the specified sizes of the full images (posted below), these details are quite enlarged from the original, some very much so.

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Roped - acrylic on panel - 12x12 - 2017.

Lady - acrylic on panel - 12x12 - 2017.

Savor - acrylic on panel - 12x12 - 2017.

Twist - acrylic on panel - 12x12 - 2017.

Loot - acrylic on panel - 12x12 - 2017.

Connoisseur - acrylic on panel - 16x12 - 2017.

Taste - acrylic on panel - 12x12 - 2017.

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Finally, I want to thank all of you who visit this blog of mine. It gives me great joy to share the things I collect here, and gives me that much more to know that there are others out there who share some of the same sensibilities. I am very grateful. This been a horrible year in so many ways, for this country, for the world. So, perhaps more fervently than ever before in my life, I wish for all of us a happy - and more peaceful, more thoughtful, more fair, more loving - New Year.

Final preview of May - and, yes, I know it's already May - plus Hollywood and Argentina

Venus Cosmeticus - acrylic on panel - 24x24 - 2015. From my show - "95 / 15" - that opens May 5th at Froelick Gallery in Portland.

Today's post is really just to show off and to give context to a new painting, Venus Cosmeticus, one of the more flashy items in my soon-to-open show at Froelick Gallery. With my well-documented love of "big hair", maybe it will come as no surprise that I've been a little bit obsessed lately - artistically, anyway - with the elaborate, often lavishly accessorized, often steeply ascending coiffures of the mid-1940s. Modeled by many of the world's great glamour queens of the period, from peak-of-her-career Betty Grable to early Eva Perón, they're often as ridiculous as that infamous pouf of the 1770s - so frequently seen in my work - and, to my perverse way of thinking, just as charming.

Detail of above.

It was little more than "40s hair" that inspired the three paintings which comprised "The Judgement of Paris", from last year's show at Winston Wächter in Seattle:

Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena - each acrylic on panel - 24x24 - 2014.

Strange that I'd be able to pinpoint the spark of this recent mania, but I feel pretty certain it was set in motion by repeated exposure to this wonderfully metallic construction, worn by Claire Trevor in "Murder My Sweet":

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Speaking of the aforementioned mesdames Grable and Perón, here are some examples of their lovely "hair art":

Betty Grable.

In this follicular contest, I'd say Miss Grable wins points for variety and novelty, while Evita earns hers for volume, consistency, and overall drama:

Eva Perón.

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During the same brief period there was also a major vogue for wearing flowers - sometimes oversized, themselves - in the midst of all that hair.

Ann Miller.

Singer and actress Ruby Hill.

Dorothy Lamour.

Esther Williams.

Hedy Lamarr.

Newlyweds Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.

Ida Lupino.

Lana Turner.

Veronica Lake.

Betty Hutton. (Just like it says.)

Francine Everett.

And again, from another scene in "Murder My Sweet", Claire Trevor.

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And, finally, from the same period, though decidedly less glamorous:

Leda and the Swan - acrylic on panel - 12x12 - 2015. The hair in a variable style known as "victory curls". Also part of the Froelick show.