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So this painting here is called "Red Shoes".
shoes
It is 60 inches by 48 and its
oil paint on panel. It's a
nice hard surface in which to work on. You can really
wipe off the paint, add it back on.
I've even sanded off the paint to
lose some areas and let it get a little softer and blurry here,
to you know sort of suggest movement again.
I mean they're really moving at a fast clip here and he's back there.
There's you know I pushed him backward so that there would be a little space
between them
but there you know she's the star obviously she's right up front
but he's there. I mean they're interacting. It's about the dynamics between these
two people.
And you know the lighting was very important to me so that it would
give sort of an inside, nighttime
maybe one light, maybe even in the moonlight.
I wanted it to be kind of an emotional mysterious sort of
a situation here. Again, I've been inspired
I love Caravaggio's way of
the light and dark and the drama.
So there's a sense a drama in here for me.
and you know I think,
I don't know if I said this earlier but I used to make all my own clothes.
I mean I really thought I was going to be a fashion designer and so I'm really
interested you know in the
evening dress and the quality of that
fashion. I suppose that came from my upbringing in Southern California seeing
all that
the glitz and dazzle of Hollywood
and so I think it's fun to paint
evening clothes and you know this flowey kind of
thing she has around there to
show a little more gesture. I did this in 2008
and
I was also working on other paintings at the time
I never work on just one at a time. I
work on at least five.
I don't always have enough space.
I used to, I've had various studios along the way. Some are very large and
wonderful.
Currently I'm working in a very small space but I still work on many
and leave them alone, come back,
so that I don't overwork anything.
I learned by working on one, I go back and forth.
No again the inspiration for this comes from
my own experience of dancing. I guess
I can feel the movement that's how dancing
adds to my work but I am
it really comes from observation
and inspiration.