Hi friends! I recently resolved an oil painting titled Rhinoplasty. Here's the journey behind the work:
I was initially inspired by a quick still life I completed over the summer:
Guess what? I loved pattern! Who knew? So I devulged my pattern sensibilities by creating a painting centered around two points: my fascination in replicating pattern with paint and the relationship between myself and a garden bunny that was in disrepair in my backyard.
When I first met the bunny, **he was in a transitional phase of repair. One ear was snapped off his ceramic head and he took a face-first tumble to the concrete. As a result, there was a gaping hole where his nose once was. My cousins had dropped him off at the bunny hospital (the backyard) where he had a duct-taped ear and face that wrapped around his injuries. Glue was injected into his ceramic sutures and there he sat, waiting for his new face. The vision of this mummy-wrappyed bunny struck me as both hilarious and familiar. I recognized a lot of parralels between the before and after images of reconstructive surgery. This was a painting that I needed to make!
**I identify the bunny as being male, although it is androgynous.
My actual before and after photos of my elective plastic surgery: Rhinoplasty in 2011. Can you see the parallels? I'm both hilarious and pathetic.
After envisioning the work and shooting referrence images in my studio, I created this sketch, which is the same size as the painting.
I primed the wood, made a rough sketch and started blocking in the figures:
I worked on the details. I'm often just as interested in an artist's pallette as I am with their paintings, so I like to share that with you as well.
Here's the final work! It is painted on wood panel and will be mounted for final presentation The pattern in the background is wrapping paper that I used for my bridesmaids gifts. It appeals to my sensibility about color, compacting lots of stuff and nostalgia.
Rhinoplasty oil on wood panel 22x16, 2015
detail of Rhinoplasty oil on wood panel 22x16
detail of Rhinoplasty oil on wood panel 22x16
detail of Rhinoplasty oil on wood panel 22x16
detail of Rhinoplasty oil on wood panel 22x16